Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-08-23


lotted hm to do this is the work he
did; and only a master spirit among
men could have done it.
To the sons of the Puritans it is al
most needless to say that the lesson
above all others which Puritanism can
teach this nation is the all-importance
of the resolute performance of duty.
If we are men we will pass by with
cOntemptuOus disdain alike the adj
visers who would seek to lead us into
the paths of ignoble ease and those who
would teach us to admire successful
wrongdolng. Our ideals should be
high, and yet they should be capable of
achievement in practical fashion. The
true doctrine to preach to this nation,
as TO the individuals composing this
nation. is not the life of ease, but the
life of effort.
Shifting of Problems
There is no use in our coming here to
pay homage to the men who founded
this nation unless we first of all come
in the spirit of trying to do our work
today as they did their work in the
yesterdays that have vanished. The
problems shift from generation TO gen
Grafton but the spirit in which they
must be approached, if they are to be
successfully solved, remains ever the
same.
The utterly changed conditions Of our
national life necessltates changes In
certain of our laws, of our govern
mental methods. Our federal system
of government is based upon the theory
of leaving to each community to each
state, the control over those things
which affect only its own members and
which the people of the locality them
selves can best grapple with, while pro-
vding for national regulation in those
matters which necessarily affect the
nation as a whole
1t seems to me that such questions
as national sovereignty and state
rights need to be treated not en-
| pirically or accidentally. but from the
standpoint of the interests of the peo-
! pie as Il whole National sovereignty
is to be upheld insofar as it means the
| sovereignty of the people used for the
real and ultimate good of the people;
and states rights are to be upheld insO.
far as they mean the peoples rights
Especially is this true in dealing WITH
the relations of the people as a whole
to the great corporation which are
the distinguishing feature Of modern
business conditions.
Business Use of Vast Fortunes
Experience has shown that it is nee
eSsary to exercise a far more efficient
control than at present over the bust
ness use of those vast fortunes, chiefly
corporate, which are used las under
modern conditions they almost in
variably areN in interstate business
When the Constitution was created
none of the conditions of modern bust
ness existed. They are wholly new
and we must create new agencies to
deal effectively with them.
There is no objection in the minds of
this people to any mans earning any
amount of money if he does it honestly
and fairly, if le gets it as the result of
special skill and enterprise. as a reward
of ample service actually rendered
But there is a growing determination
that no man shall amass a great for
tune by special privilege. by chicanery
and wrongdoing, 50 far as it is in the
power of legislation to prevent; and
that the fortune when amassed shall
not have a business use that is anti
social
Most large corporations do a business
that is not confined to any one state.
Experience has shown that the effort
to control these corporations by mere
state action cannot produce wholesome
results. | believe in a national incor-
poration law for corporal tons engaged
in interstate business. ! believe, fur
thermore that the need for action is
most pressing as regards those cor
pOratiOnS which, because they are com
mon carriers, exercise quasi-publc
| function: and which can be completely
controlled, in all respects by the fed
eral government. by the exercise of the
power conferred under the Interstate
commerce clause, and. if necessary, I'M
der the post-road clause, Of the Con
stitution.
AS to Railroad Corporations
During the last few years we have
taken marked strides in advance along
the road of proper regulation of these
railroad corporations; but we must not
stop in the work. The national gov
eminent should exercise over them a
similar supervision and control to that
We can do this only by proceeding far.
Their along the lines marked out by the
recent national legislation.
The American people became firmly
convinced of the need of control over
these great aggregations of capital.
especially where they had monopo-
listic tendency, before they became
quite clear as to the proper way of