The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-10-01

,onneau and Mrs. Roosevelt is just
dustries do not exist under the same
conditions.
1t is not only our duty to legislate so
as to encourage these enterprises
which seek to build up and develop
our country, but it is also our duty to
legislate to Prohibit those which seek
to Cypress. IFS is a most delicate
piece of work. Our country has pre-
scented sucp favorable conditions under
our system of laES and with our great
resources, that there has grown up oc-
casionally great corporation whose
purpose seems to be to exact unfair
profits. Among our captains of in
dustry, occasionally there is one who
adopts unfair methods and is himself
dishonest. But we find this true in
all institutions and in all societies.
| The church, the purpose of which is to
encourage christianity, sometimes has
among its members an individual who
uses it as a cloak to further his selfish
purposes, and oar laws that were de-
signed to stimulate and encourage hon
est endeavors have also made it pcs
sible for a dishones, captain of indus
try to take unfair advantage of the
people, and it is this class that we seek
to curb by legislation. without at the
same time injuring, or perhaps destroy
ing the opportunity of the honest and
well conducted corporation. The
fo,.y !, 10 ,i,o
in cultivating his farm, for he finds
that it is impossible to build up rich
soil that will produce only good things.
The same soil that produces a great
stalk of corn. will likewise, produce
high weeds. The problem then before
the farmer is to cultivate the corn and
destroy the weeds, and it is the same
problem faced by the law makers. It
is our duty to encourage the good men
and discourage the bad ones, and this
is not always easy to do.
| have no patience with those who
, are always predicting calamities and
, intimating that our people are not
equal to all occasions. There never
, was a time when conditions were more
hopeful. There never was time
: when the standard of citizenship was
, higher than it is today. There are
t those who point to the frauds and
t wrongs in Our industrial life as signs
of our decay, but to me the most sig
nificant fact of the whole controversy
+. is that all the offenders are either in
dicted or have a good prospect of be
f ing soon brought into the courts.
, Acts of Congress to Prohibit Unfair
Dealing on the Part of Railroads
+ And Interstate Corporations.
Beginning with the inter state com
: merce law, congress has tried regu
: late, along proper lines. the great in
v ter-state roads. and the corporations
: doing an inter state business.
After this, the Sherman antitrust
S law and the Elkins anti-rebate Law
l were enacted, the bureau of corpora
t tiOns was created, and the railway rate
: law, and other measures designed t.
l. promote fair dealing and individual op
= pOrtunity, were enacted. We are nov
e seeking to enforce these laws and pun
= ish those who evade them, and l have
l. no doubt but that the great lawyers
who are seeking to enforce our various
enactments will find that in some par
ticulars they are defective, and from
time to time amendments will have t
be added by congress. 1t will, how
; ever, require the skill and ability o
our greatest statemen to determin
what these amendments should be. I
we were to follow the thousands of rec
, concentrations that come from the gen
: tlemen who assume to have complet
- knowledge of all these great question
: we would soon have condition of al
:. fairs so complicated, that a thousan
: of the proverbial Philadelphia lawyer
that we have heard so much about, i
II the days gone by. would not be able t
properly construe and enforce the law
d Importance of the Personnel of the o.
e fciaIs Who Enforce the Law.
In addition to the necessity for goo
d laws it is equally necessary that the Of
- ficials under whose authority thes
l. laws are enforced, are the stronges
e and most efficient men that can be st
cured. 1t is essential that all queE
y lions Of politics should be set aside an
'F laws OiStu SlTICllS Will vie
~irging about fair dealing, and W
IL aid be extremely careful that no az
a ton shall be taken with view TO pc
litical advantage rather than justic
between citizens.
In our form of government, wher
, we go to the people every four year
for the election Of a president, tn
temptation is sometimes great to d
things more with a <1ew of securin
political advantage than with the vie'