Evening star., 1907-08-21
The Presidents Postscript.

Had President Roosevelt allowed his speech
to stand as it was originally written and dis
tributed it would doubtless have been re-
Earded by the majority OF people as a
strong. stltcSmanike exposition of his pol
icy Of trust regulation, in the main con-
servativc. balanced and effective. 1t was,
in fact the best statement of his position
and purpose which has thus far been pre-
pared and in that first form it might have
gone into history a great paper
1t would have been difficult for even the
propou"nt of the extreme Wall street doc
trine to quest ion the logic of that first draft
Of the speech The Presidents premises
were sound and his reasoning was infalIible.
He spoke for the maintenance of the law
and for the enforcement of the principle of
competition in trade His declaration in
favor of the application of individual pun
ishments in cases of proved personal in
fractions of the laws was temperate. though
uumStakable.
But. unfortunately. some impulse came to
the President at the last moment to change
the text of the speech by the addition of a
few paragraphs. This addendum changed
the entire focus of the address, shifting
II from broad view of the case 10 a COM
paratively narrow one. shifting it from the
contemplation of the general aspect of the
country to the specific conditions of the day.
In terms. too. the added portion was differ
cnt from the original draft The President
changed his pitch. and the effect was in
harmonious.
OF course. it matters little to the financial
interests whether the President warns them
in temperate or in more pointed terms that
infractions of the law to be prosecuted
by the administration to the limit of the
statutes. But 1t is nevertheless disa ppont-
ing to find Mr. Roosevelt declaring his pur-
pose in this manner. after having already
laid down the broad principle fully and
adequately expressed in the original draft
OF the speech 1t is a case of uttering the
word too much.
Particularly deplorable is the revival of
the rich mans conspiracy" theory TO ac-
count for tine recent slump in security
prices The iteration OF that proposition
suggests an obsesson. incompatible with the
laws of finance on the one hand and the
highest requireme nts~ ef~'rile execdtfte Of
flee on the other 1t Is not reasonably to
be doubted that the stock market was top
heavy last autumn and winter and that the
fall which occurred in March due to
this condition. The present downward
tendency is attributable TO many causes
money tightness, the effect of early reports
OF crop failures. the midsummer weakness
due to the absence of the market leaders
on vacation. and. finally. and chief of ALL
the general tendency of state and national
governments to hammer the railroads and
the industrial corporations. The net result
of these causes is failure of the public to
enter the market as buyers. This is in
turn the consequence OF lack of conf
dence In the future sta bility of the securities
These being the conditions. the repetition
of the charge that certain capitalists
have cnnspired to depTeGi1 te, the, prices of
their own properties In order to frghten the
country and TO coerce the President into a
radical change Of policy is perhaps the
most remarkable expression of an alto
sether remarkable postscript