The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-12-05
ROOSEVELT STANDS
FOR REGULATION or
BIG CORPORATIONS
In Message Delivered Tuesday
He Urges a National In
corporation Act.
MONEY REFORM is NEEDED
lie Leaves It to Congress to Select
Plan, but lnclines Toward Guar
anty Fund for Protection
Many Points Covered.

oil ~ SD "
ident Roosevelt today sent his nnu
message to the sixtieth congress, and
1T was read in both OF the
assembly. In part the message is as
follows:
The Senate and House of Represent
atives: No nation has greater re-
sources tina ours, and | think 1t can
be truthfully said that the citizens of
no nation possess greater energy and
industrial ability. In no nation are the
fundamental business conditions sound
er than in ours at his very moment
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 immediate
occasion of money s~tringency. More
over, as a rule, the business of our peo-
pie is conducted with honesty and pro-
bity, and this applies alike to farms
and factories, to railroads and banks,
to all our legitimate commercial enter
prises.
III 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 u very evil thing for the
community. Where these men ara
business men of great sagacity and of
temperament both unscrupulous
reckless, and where the conditions are
such that they act without supervision
or control and at first without effective
check from public opinion, they delude
many innocent people into making in
yestments or embarking in kinds OF
business that are really unsound. When
the misdeeds of these successfully dis
honest men are discovered. suffering
comes not only upon them, but upon the
innocent men whom they have misled. 1t
is a painful awakening, whenever it oc-
ours; and, naturally, when it does oc-
cur those who suffer are apt TO forget
that the longer it was deferred the more
painful 1T would be. In the effort to
punish the guilty it is both wise and
proper to endeavcr 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 lnisdeeds that are the ulti-
mate causes of the sufferings, and, as
a NEAR to this end, where possible to
punish those responsible for them.
There may be honest differences of
opinion as to many governmental poll
cies; but surely there car be no such
differences as to the need of unfiinch-
Ing perseverance in the war against
successful dishonesty.
CHere the president quotes from his
1905 message his declaration for the
square deal between corporations and
people and for the regulations of inter-
state to this end.)
I have called your attention in these
quotations to what I l nave already said
because I am satisfied that it is the
duty of the national government to en-
body in action the principles thus ex-
pressed.
Interstate Commerce.
No small part of the trouble that we
have comes from carrying to an eS-
IRENE the national virtue of self-re-
lance, OF independence in initiative and
action. 1t is wise to conserve this viz
tue and to provide for its fullest exer-
else. compatible with seeing that lib
erty does not become a 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-
vided that the national government
should have complete and sole control
of interstate There was
then practically no interstate business
save UGH as was conducted by water,
and this the national government at
once proceeded to regulate in thor
oughgoing and effective fashion. Con-
ditions have now SO wholly changed
that the interstate commerce by water
is Insignificant compared with the
amour that goes by land. and almost
all big business concerns are now en-
gagged in interstate commerce. AS a
result, 1t can De DuC partially ana I'M
perfectly controlled or regulated by the
action of n n of the several states;
such action inevitably tending to be
either too drastic or else too 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 extern
sion of federal authority, for
such authority already exists un-
der the constitution in amp
lest and most far-reaching form
but 1t does mean that there o be
an extension of federal activity. This
is not advocating centralizatiop. 1t is
merely looking lacts in the face. and
realizing that Capitalization in bust
ness has already come and cannot be
avoided or undone, and that the pub
certain evil effects of This business
naturalization by providing better
metheas ior me eXefclse OF control
through lhe authorlly ALREADY central
lzed III the nallohal government by the