Evening star., 1907-08-20
INFLUENCE OF THE PURITAN
Address of President Roosevelt at
Provincetown, Mass.

OF meeting them SO we of today face
wholly new conditions in our social and
industrial life. We should certainly not
adopt any new scheme for graphing with
them merely because 1t is new and untried:
but we can not afford to shrink from
graphing with them because they can only
be grappled with by some new scheme.
The Puritan was no Laodicean. no laissez-
faire theorist. When he saw conduct which
was in violation Of his rights-of the rights
of man, the rights of God as he understood
them-he attempted to regulate such con-
duct with instant, unQuestioning prompt
ness and effectiveness. If there was no
other way to secure conformity with the
rule of right, then he smote down the
transgressor with the iron of his wrath.
The spirit of the Puritan was a spirit which
never shrank from regulation of conduct
III such regulation was necessary for the
public veal; and this is the spirit which we
must show today whenever it Is necessary.
National Sovereignty and State Rig
The utterly changed conditions of our ma
tional life necessitate changes in certain
of our laws of our governmental methods.
Our federal system of government is based
upon the theory of leaving to each COM
munity. to each state. the control over those
things which affect only It's own members
and which the people of the locality them
selves can best grapple with. while provid-
Ing 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 states rights
need to be treated not empirically aca-
demically, but from the standpoint of the
interests of the people as a whole. Ma
tional sovereignty is to be upheld in so far
as 1t means the sovereignty of the people
used for the real and ultima te good of the
people; and states rights are to De upheld
In so far they the people, rights.
Especially is this true in dealing with the
relations of the people as a whole to the
great corporations which are the dstin-
gushing feature of modern business con-
ditions.
Experience has shown that it is neces-
sary to exercise far more efficient con-
troll than at present over the business use
of those vast fortunes. chiefly corporate.
which are used (aS under modern condi-
tions they almost invariably are) in inter-
state business. When the Constitution was
created none of the conditions of modern
business 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 man s
earning any amount of money if he does
1t honestly and fairly. if he gets it the
result of special skill and enterprise, as
reward of ample service actually rendered.
But there Is a growing determination that
no man shall amass great fortune by
special privilege. by chicanery and wrong
doing. so far as 1t Is in the power of legis-
lation to prevent; and that the fortune when
amassed shall not have a business use that
Is antisocial.
that is not confined to any one state Ex-
perience has shown that the effort to con-
troll these corporations by mere state action
cannot produce 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 corpora
tion 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 safe
guard the rights of the corporations as to
exact from them in return full measure
of justice to the public l believe in a
national incorporation law for corporations
engaged in interstate business. I believe
furthermore that the need for action is
most pressing as regards those corporations
which. because they are common carriers
exercise quasi-public function; and which
can be completely controlled, in all re-
spects by the federal government by the
exercise of the power conferred under the
nterstate-commerce clause, and. If neceS-
sary. under the post-road clause, of the
Constitution. During the last few years we
have taken marked strides in advance along
the road of prope- regulation of these rail-
road corporations; but we must not stop in
the work. The national government should
exercise over them a similar supervision
and control to that which it exercises over
national banks. We do this only by
proceeding farther along the lines marked
out by the recent national legislation
Interstate Business.
In dealing with any totally new set of
conditions there must at the outset be hest
tation and experiment Such has been our
experience in dealing with the enormous
concentration of capital employed in inter
state business. Not only the legislatures
but the courts and the people need gradu-
ally to be educated so that they may see
what the real wrongs are and what the
real remedies. Almost every big business
In mt tata
and such concern must not be allowed by
a deXterous shifting of position, as has
been too often the case In the past to es-
cape thereby all responsibility either to
state or to nation The American people
became firmly convinced of the need of
control over these great aggregations of
capital, especially where they had monop-
olistic tendency, before they became quite
clear as to the proper way of achieving the
control. Through their representatives in
Congress they t-tec two remedies which
were to large degree, at least as inter-
preted by the courts, contradictory On
the one hand, under the antitrust law the
effort was made'to prohibit all combination,
whether 1t was or was not hurtful or bene-
nclal to the public. On the other hand,
through the lnterstate-comme-ce law be-
ginning was made In exercising such SUPER
vision and control over combinations as to
prevent their doing anything harmful to the
body polite.
The first law. the so-called Sherman law.
has filled useful place. for it bridges
over the transition period until the Ameri-
can people shall definitely make up its mind
that II Will exercise over the great corpora
tions that thoroughgoing and radical con-
troll which 1t is certain ultimately to find
necessary. The principle of the Sherman
law 50 far as II prohibits combinations
which. whether because of their extent or
Of their character are harmful to the pub
lie must always be preserved Ultimately
and ] hope with reasonable speed, the ma
tonal government must pass laws which,
while increasing the supervisory and regu-
latory power of the government also per-
mits such useful combinations as are made
with absolute opennesS and the repre-
sentatives of the government may prev!-
ously approve But 1t will not be possible
to permit such combinations save as the
second stage in course of proceedings
of which the first stage must be the eXer-
else of far more compile control by the
national government.
Difficulties of Department Of Justice.
In dealing with those who offend against
the antitrust and interstate commerce laws
the Department of Justice has to encounter
many and great difficulties. Often men who
have been guilty of violating these laws
have really acted in criminal fashion. and
If possible should be proceeded against
cTiminaiy; and therefore IL is advisable
that there should be a clause in these laws
providing for such criminal action and for