Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-05-17
DISAPPOINTED AGAIN.

The enemies of the President, who
had been predicting and sincerely
hoping that he would say something
in his jamestown speech that would
give them chance to hammer him,
are again disappointed, for every SEN
tence he uttered is right to the point,
and there is no room left for caviling
The Hartman crowd was especially
concerned in this, for they have been
predicting all kinds of trouble for the
business interests of the country as a
result of the policy of the President in
regard to the methods of thigh
finance" practiced by them, but in
handling this great question he has
shown his good sense and sound judg-
ment. He puts the big thieves and
the little ones on the same level, and
in the interests of justice to all the
people, insists that the country shall
not be ruled either by stock gamblers
and robbers or by mobs led by profess
sinnal labor agitators. The honest
people Of the country are with him on
this, and there is great reason to be
proud of the fact that We have a man
in the white house who is not afraid
to speak out on all public questions.
In regard to the policy of the admin
istratiun regarding the financial situa
ton as affected by the recent dis
closures of the practices of such men
as Hartman, the following paragraph
from the speech covers the ground very
fully:
Elm Industrial matters our enormous
prosperity has brought with it GER
tain grave evils. 1t is our duty to try
to cut out these evils without at the
same time destroying our well being
itself. It is an era of combination
alike in the world of capital and the
wor Id of labor. Each kind of combina-
ton can do good, and yet each, how
ever powerful, must be opposed when
it does i'll. At the moment the
greatest problem before us is how to
exercise such control over the business
use of vast wealth, individual, but
especially corporate, as will insure it's
not being used against the interest of
the public, while yet permitting such
ample legitimate profits as will en-
courage individual initiative. 1t is our
business to pat stop to abuses, and
to prevent their recurrence, without
showing spirit of mean vindictiveness
for what has been done III the past.
The wrongdoer, the man who swindles
or cheats, whether on big scale or
a little one, shall receive at our hands
mercy as scant as if he had committed
crimes of violence or brutality. We
are unalterably determined to prevent
wrong-doing in the future we have no
intention of trying to wreak such an
indiscriminate vengeance for wrongs
done in the past as would confound
the innocent with the guilty. Our
purpose is to build up rather than to
tear down. We show ourselves the
truest friend of property when we
make it evident that we will not
tolerate abuses of property. We are
steadily bent on preserving the insti-
tuition of private property; we combat
every tendency toward reducing the
people to economic servitude; and
we care not whether the tendency is
due to sinister agitation directed
against all property, or whether it is
due to the actions of those members
Of the predatory classes whose anti
social power is imeasurably increased
because of the fact that they possess
wealth. :"