The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-20
ROOSEVELT
SENDS DEFY
TO WALL ST.


ereignty and States rights need to be
treated not empirieally or accidentally,
but from the standpoint of the inter-
ests of the people as a whole. Ma
tfonal sovereignty is to be upheld in
so far as it means the sovereignty of
the people used for the real and ulti-
mate good of the people; and states
rights are to be upheld in so far as
they mean the peoples rights. Es-
pecialIy is this true in dealing with the
relations of the people as a whole TO
the great corporations which are tho
distinguishing feature of modern bush
ness conditions.
Experience has shown that it is
necessary to exercise n far more. ef1-
cfent control at present over the bust
ness use of those vast fortunes. chlehy
corporate, which are used (as unuer
modern conditions they almost invarl-
ably are) in interstate business. Wnen
the Constitution was created none of
the conditions of modern business ex-
listed. They are wholly new, and we
fectiyely with them. There is no OBJ
lection in the minds OF the people
to any mans earning any anao9nI OF
il he gets 1t as the result of special
skill and enterprise, as a reward or
ample service actually rendered. But
there IL n growing determination that
NO man shall amass a great fortune
by special privilege, by chicanery and
-Wrongdoing, so far as 1t Is In the
power of legislation to prevents and
that the fortune when amassed shall
not have n 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
wholesome results. In most cases such
effort fails to correct the real abuses
of which the corporation is or may, be
guilty; while in other cases the effort
is apt to cause either hardship to the
corporation itself, or else hardship to
neighboring States which have not
tried to grapple with the problem In
the same manner; and, of course, we
must be as ~scrupulous to safeguard
the rights of the corporations as to
exact from them In return a full meas
ure of Justice to the public. i believe
in Il national Incorporation law for
corporations engaged in Interstate
business. believe. furthermore. TINT
the need for action is most pressing
rs regards those corporations which,
because they are common carriers, ex-
crcise a Guasi-public function; and
which can be completely controlled In
all respects by the Federal government,
by The exercise of the power conferred
under the interstate m clause,
and, IL necessary, under the post-road
ela1lse. of the Constitution.
During the last few years we ave
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
crnmcnt should exercise over them "a
simi;ar supervision and control to that
which it exercises over national banks.
We can do this only by proceeding
farther along the lines marked out
by the recent national legislation.
I'm dealing with any totally new set
of conditions there must at the out
set be hesitation and experiment. Such
has been our experience in dealing with
the enormous, concentration of capital
employed in interstate business. Not
only the legislatures, but the courts
and the people need gradually to be
educated so that they may see what
the real wrongs are and what the real
remedies. Almost every big business
concern is engaged in interstate COM
merce, and such a concern must not
position, as has been too often the
case in the past, to escape thereby all
responsibility either to State or to
nation.
ry convinced of the need of control
over rDcSc REeuA SS&fcEuttOhS vs.
cnpitaI. especially where they had n
monopoIistic tendency. before they be-
ca.ne quite clear as 10 the proper way
of achieving the control. Through
their representatives in Congress they
tried two remedies, which were to a
large degree. at icnst MS Interpreted
lS the courts, contradictory.
"on the one hard, Under the anti
trslSt law the effort was ninde to pro-
hfbEt all combination, whether 1t was
or was not hurtful or beneficial to the
public.
the other hand, through the In
terstnte commerce. law "A beginning
was made in exercising such SUPER
vision and control over combinations
as to prevent their doing anything
harmful to the Eody polite.
"The first law, thc sO-callcd sherman