The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-21
MOURNFUL WAILTNG
PRESIDENT R00SEVELT'S
SPEECH IN WALL ST.
One of the %Disgruntled Organs of the
Financial Magnates Voices
Their Disgust.

NEW YORK. Aug. 21,-The Wall
said editorially of President Roosevelt's
Provincetown speech:
Nothing that Mr.. Roosevelt had
spoken earlier. in his role of national
adviser and Federal paterfamilias, was
varied or departed from in any degree
in his address at Provincetown today.
In fact, he made the occasion memora-
BILE in that he ~euiogized the Puritans,
and then evinced in unmistakable lam
guage something of the zeal with which
those early settlers pursued the hereto
and unbelieveI. in emphatically reaf-
firning all that he had ever said in re-
gard to his campaign against the
wealth that works iniquity.' Those
who had expected a modification of his
policy will be disappointed. while the
admirers Of the Strenuous One are
gwen additional cause for glee.
changes in our laws and in our gov
ernmental methods. he still insists, are
necessary; indeed, in training his guns
against men of large wealth who have
been guilty of re~prehensible conduct,
he did not hesitate to declare that he
would find an effective weapon even
though additional legislation were nee
essary for its forging. From its gen.
eral Trend 1t is difficult to designate the
Presidents a position as a philoso-
pher. In his desire for action he might
be styled a pragmatist; in pleading for
constant amendments he is something
OF ar empiricist; in everything that he
says and does he is never a nationalist.
He seems to think that fixed beliefs are
merely rules for action and that
thought is valueless unless it Is dy-
manic.
His construction of the questions of
national sovereignty and States rights,
if not convincing. is certainly novel.
The former deals with the interests of
the people as a whole the latter
mean the peoples rightsi' If Mr..
Roosevelt could divorce himself from
the thought that he is the final au-
thority on constitutional Interpretation
we would be spared many of these
platitudes that neither enhance his
literary style nor instruct his auditors
or readers. Federal control of cor
porations. through a national incor-
poration law, he believes as necessary
as the governments regulation of ma
tional banks. Neither the antitrust
nor the interstate m law goes
far enough. They bridge over a
transition period in our educational
course on the handling of corporate in
situations and will lead to an 'ulti-
mately necessary thoroughgoing and
radical control. Following this we
may, as a second stage, permit GER
tain useful combinations approved
by the government.
Criminal punishment for violations
of the antitrust law. he espouses;
and. herein. made a telling point in
calling attention to the public reluct-
ance TO commit to prison corporate Of
tenders. Despite all that has been said,
the extent to which juries seem to go
IS limited by the imposition of a fine.
The fact that the offenses complained
Of are tolerated by the business com
munity accounts for his disinclina-
ton. This may explain the insistence
shown by the government in pursuing
corporations rather than the particu-
Z Early guilty individuals; but that is
not convincing. If the latter policy
were adhered to, we believe, in sew
eral cases the result which Mr.. Roose-
Welt 80 earnestly desires would be at
tnined at the hands of an ordinary
jury. Criminal process is swifter than
procedure in equity, and combining the
( laws vengeance to the really respon-
sible culprlt is less harmful to the in
weston.
With the present plight of the
Street he has no concern. 1t is COM
Elementary to, a universal financial
disturbance, out of which an attempt
has been made to bring about a re-
versal of his methods by certain male
factors who later hope to profit
thereby. 1t will not deter him in his
unalterable pursuit of the guilty and
the wrongdoer. Fol them there is nc
quarter; for the innocent stakeholder
and honest citizen the government is
to remain a sheltering aegis."
LOWER DUTY ON HIDES.
~OT ITNfRTTS q Auo n 1T National