The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-12-05
TARIFF REVISION
UAWISE JUST NOW
PRESIDENT ADVISES CONGRESS
TO MAKE FEW CHANGES.
MESSAGE DELIVERED TODAY
VIII Not Let Up On the Prosecution
OF Trusts or individuals Who
Do Not Obey Laws--The
Money Question.

W dpuluBNOu,' ~. w iD6C.s o.--lillle
business was transacted in congress
today aside from the reception of Pre-.
sident Roosevelt's annual message
The document was longer than usual
but was heard with greatest atten.
ton throughout. The galleries were
packed with visitors who came early
and remained for hours to retain
their seats. The vital parts of the
message follows:
The Presidents Message.
ITO the Senate and House Of Repre-
sentatives:
No nation has greater resources
than ours, and think it can be truth
fully said that the citizens of no ma
tion possess greater energy and indus
trial ability. In no nation are the
fundamental business conditions
sounder than in ours at this very mo-
ment; and it is foolish, when such is
the case, for people to hoard money
instead of keeping it in sound banks;
for it Is such boarding that is the i'm
mediate occasion of money stringency.
Moreover, as rule, the business of
our people is conducted with honesty
and probity, and this applies alike to
farms and factories, to railroads and
banks, to all our legitimate CONNER
cial enterprises.
''Tn any large body of men, however,
there are certain to be some who are
dishonest, and if the conditions are
such that these men prosper or com.
NIT their misdeeds with impunity. their
example is a very evil thing for the
community. Where these men are
business men Of great sagacity and of
temperament both INSCRIPTIONS and
reckless, and where the conditions are
such that they act without supervision
or control and at first without effect
i've check from public opinion, they
delude many innocent people into
making investments or embarking in
kinds of business that are really I'M
sound. When the misdeeds of these
successfully dishonest men are discov-
cred, suffering comes not only upon
them, but upon the innocent men
whom they have misled 1t is pain
III awakening, whenever it occurs; and,
naturally, when it does occur those
who ssuffer are apt to forget that the
longer it was deferred the more pain
full it would be. In the, effort to pun,
ish the guilty it is both wise and
proper to endeavor so far as possible
to minimize the distress of those who
have been misled by the guilty. Yet
it is not possible to refrain because OF
such distress from striving to put an
end to the misdeeds that are the ulti-
mate causes of the suffering, and, as a
means to this end, where possible to
punish those responsible for them.
There may be honest differences OF
opinion as to many governmental poll
eies: but surely there can be no such
differences as to the need of untlinch.
ing perseverance in the war against
successful dishonesty. SIS
Interstate Commerce. ssF
mo small part of the trouble that
we have comes from carrying to an
extreme the national virtue of self
reliance, of independence in initiative
and action. 1t is wise to conserve this
virtue and to provide for its fullest
exercise, compatible with seeing that
liberty does not become liberty to
wrong others. Unfortunately, this Is
the kind of liberty that the lack of all
effective regulation inevitably breeds,
The founders of the Constitution pro.
yided that the National Government
should have complete and sole con-
troll of interstate commerce. There
was then practically no interstate bus
mess save such as was conducted by
water, and this the National Govern
ment at once proceeded to regulate in
thoroughgoing and effective fashion.
Conditions have now so wholly chang
ed that the interstate commerce by
water is Insignificant compared with
the amount that goes by land, and al,
most all big business concerns are
now engaged in interstate commerce,
AS a result, it can be but partially
and imperfectly controlled or regulat-
ed by the action of any one of the sew
eral states such action inevitably tend
ing to De eltnef 100 uldSIlS VI Ci0S wv
lax. and in either case ineffective for
purposes of justice. Only the National
Government can in thoroughgoing
fashion exercise the needed control,
This does not mean that there should
be any extension of Federal author
ity. for such authority already exists
under the Constitution in amplest and
most far.reaching form; but it does
mean that there should be an extern
sion of Federal activity. This is not
advocating Capitalization. 1t is mere
Iy looking facts in the face, and realiz-
ing that Capitalization in business has
already come and can not be avoided
or undone, and that the public at large
can only protect itself from certain
evil effects oft his business centraliza'
zion by providing better methods for
the exercise of control through the au-
thority already centralized in the Ma
tional Government by the Constitution
itself. There must be no halt in the
healthy constructive course of action
which this nation has elected to pur-
sue and has steadily pursued, during
the last six years, as shown poth III