The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-06-06
RULE RAILROADS.
President Favors More Laws for
Their Regulation.

Indianapolis, May 81 President
Roosevelt spoke frankly, earnestly
and vigorously on the railroad situa.
ton at the unwilling of the Lawton
statue in this city yesterday.
He declared that there can be no
halt in the forward movement for
complete government control,
That such control must be as un-
questioned and sweeping as that over
national banks.
That overcapitalization is a menace
and must cease.
That the man who exploits railroad
properties for personal gain saoi,ld
be held to criminal accountability
That, all in all, the securities of our
railroads are based on safe founda-
tons.
The President strongly emphasized
the necessity of advancing in the
work of solving the railway prob
lem. He repeatedly sounded the iced
of activity, of making progress along
the lines he has mapped out in the
recent past. Much has been accom-
plished already, he said, and these
achievements augur future triumphs.
In connection with his referen,e to
the need for renewed activity Pre-
dent Roosevelt made one or two
pointed thrusts. At one stage nearly
every wise person in the audience
whispered in unison the name, ed
ward II. Hartman" 1t occurred just
after the President had made the sug-
gestion that in the government
should be vested full power of sup
ervision and control over the rail
ways doing an interstate business"
A moving reason for exercising his
control was found in the ia = that
ertain high railway officials not in
frequently misuse their authority to
water" and float railroad stocks and
lake in the profits, he said
"The federal government will thus
be able to prevent all overcapitaliza-
ton in the FUTURE" said the Presi-
dent, ito prevent any man hereafter
from plundering others by loading
railway properties with obligations
and pocketing the mon. y instead of
spending it in Improvements and IN
legitimate corporate purposes.
The President paused and then
added 'sAnd any man acting in such
fashion should be held <: criminal
accountability"
The President deal. almost solely
with the railroad problem. While
his stirring note was tina. of progress
indeed, while he may be said to
have raised the banner of activity
no backward step, no lansing
dwelt with almost startling emphasis
on the overcapitalization evil and
talked strongly against stock ganb-
ling.
"Great social and industrial prob
lens confront us" said the President
when he took up the railroad :ues-
ton, "and their solution demands on
our part unfaltering courag-, and yet
wise, good-natured self-restraint; SO
that on the one hand we shall neither
be daunted by difficulties nor fooled
by those who would seek to persuade
us that the difficulties are insuper-.
able; while on the other hand we are
not misled into showing either rash
ness or vindictiveness. Let us try,
as people, to show the same quail
tiles as we deal with the industrial
and social problems of today that
Abraham Lincoln showed when, with
indomitable resolution, but with a
kindness, patience, and common
sense quite as remarkable, he faced
four weary years of open war in front
of calumny, detraction and intrigue
from behind, and at the end gave to
his countrymen whom he had served
so we'll the blood-bought gift of a
race freed and nation forever unit
ed.
Zone great problem that we have
before us is to preserve the rights
of property; and these can only be
preserved IL we remember that they
are in less jeopardy from the socialist
and the anarchist than from the pre-
datory man of wealth. 1t has become
evident that to refuse to invoke the
power of the nation to restrain the
wrongs committed by the man of
great wealth who does evil is not
only to neglect the interests OF the
public, but is to neglect the interests
of the man of means who acts honor
ably by his fellows