Arizona republican., 1908-02-01


 true. and our law should be so framed mat the government as the represent
 ative of the whole people, can protect ! the individual against unlawful exact-
 tions for the use of these public nigh ways. The interstate commerce com , mission should be provided with the
 means to make a physical valuation of i any roads as to which 1t deems this
 valuation necessary. In some form the i federal government should exercise su-
 pervision over the financial operations i of our interstate railroads.
 ''I think that the federal government must also assume a certain measure Of control over the physical operation | of railroads in the handling of inter- state traffic. In order to make this pro- vision in times of necessity the proper
 movement of traffic thikn the commits ! sion must also have authority to deter
 mine the conditions upon which cars
 shall be interchanged between the diff ferent interstate railroads. It is also probable that the commission should have authority, in particular instances,
 to determine a schedule upon which perishable commodities shall be moved.
 In this connection, l desire to re-
 peat my recommendation that railroads
 be permitted to form traffic associa-
 tions for the purposes Of conferring
 about and agreeing upon rates, regu-
 lations and practices affecting inter-
 state business in which the members
 of the association are mutually inter-
 ested. This does not mean that they
 should be given the right to pool their
 earnings, or their traffic. The law re-
 quires that rates shall be so adjusted as not to discriminate between individ-
 uals, localities or different species of
 traffic. Ordinarily, rates by all com peting lines must be the same. As ap- piled to practical conditions, the rail- way operations Of this country cannot be conducted according to law without what is equivalent to conference and agreement. The articles under which associations operate should be approv- ed by the commission; all their oper ations should be open to public inspec- tion; and the rates, regulations and practices upon which they agree should be subject to disapproval by the com mission.
 T urge this last provision with the same earnes7ness that 1 do the others. This country provides its railroads fa- cilitiss by private capital. Those facil- ities will not be adequate unless the capital employed is assured of just treatment adn an adequate return. In fixing the charges of our railroads, I believe, that 1t is to the public inter- est alone, 1t isbetter to be too liberal than too scanty, for otherwise there is grave danger that our railroad devel- opment may not keep pace with the de- mand for transportation. But the fundamental idea that these railroads are public highways must be recog- l nized and they must be open to the | whole public upon equal terms and | terms"
 The president then attacks the stock | exchange:
 'I do not know whether it is possi- | ble, but if possible ft is certainly de- i sirable that in connection with meas ures to restrain stock watering and | over -capitalizing there should be meas | ures taken to prevent at least the | grosser forms of gambling in securities 1 and commodities such as making large | sales of what men do not possess and ! 'cornering" the market. Legitimate i purchases Of commodities and of stocks for investment have no connec- tion whatever with purchases of stocks or other securities or commodities on or for speculative or gambling | purposes. There is no difference in at cards or in lotteries or at the race track and gambling in the stock market. One method is just as pernicious to the body polite as the
 lrs, fr, ha nN-i1 worked is far greater. But it is a far more difficult subject with which to deal. The bulk of the business trans acted on the exchanges is not only legitimate, but is necessary to the of our modern industrial sys- tenn, and extreme care would have to be taken not to interfere with the busi- ness in doing away with the bucket shop type of operation. We should study both the successes and failures Of foreign legislators who notably In Germany have worked along this line, so as not to do anything harmful. Moreover, there is a special difficulty in dealing with this matter by the fed eraI government in a federal republic like ours. But if it is possible to de- wise a way to deal with it, the effort should be made. even if only in cau- tious and tentative way. It would seem that the federal government could at least act by forbidding the use of the mails, telegraph, and telephone wires for mere gambling in stocks and flu lures just as it does in lottery trans- actions"
 MT. Roosevelt introduced his re- marks on corporations by means of by reference to certain f documents from the bureau of corpo- rations relating to the Standard Oil and the Santa Fe railroad. to- gether with correspondence furnished by Francis J. Heney concerning the operations of the Santa Fe in the state of California. The president then en- ters upon a defense of himself as fol- lows:
 The attacks by these great corpo- rations on the administrations actions had been given a wide circulation the country, in the news papers and otherwise, by those writers and speakers, who consciously or un- act as the representatives of predatory wealth-wealth accumu- lated on a giant scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from the oppression of wage workers. to unfair and un- wholesome methods of crushing out and to defrauding the public by stock jobbing ana the manip-