Putnam patriot., 1908-12-11
PRESIDENTS
 MESSAGE.
Makes Annual Reeommen.
 dations to Congress-.
ATTACKS ANTITRUST LAW

s4erraan Act Should Be Amended to
 Permit Combinations Which Are In
 .hs interest Of the Public, Says the
 President = Urges Legislation to
 Safeguard the Waseworkers-DweIl
 on Need of Protection For Forests.
 Views on the Army and the Navy.
 washington. Dec. S.-In his messa ge fo congress, read to the two houses. the president said:
 The t1nanciai standing of the nation At the present time is excellent. and tbe financial management of the na- tianss interests by the government dur ing the last seven years has shown the nest satisfactory results. But our currency system is imperfect, and it is earnestly to be hoped that the cur rsnev commission will be able to pro pose thoroughly good system which will do away with the existing defects
 During the period from July 1. 1901, to Sept 30. 1908, there has been a net surplus of nearly one hundred millions of receipts over expenditures, a reduc- ion of the interest bearing debt by ninety millions, in spite of the extraor- dinary expense of the Panama canal aid saving of nearly nine millions on the annual interest charge This is an exceedingly satisfactory showing. There has been reduction of taxa ton.
 Corporations.
 As regards the great corporations en- gagged in interstate business, and espe- cialiy the railroads, l can only repeat what l have already again and again said in my messages to the congress. I believe that under the interstate clause of the constitution the United States has complete and paramount right to control all agencies of inter- state commerce, and l believe that the national government alone can exer- else this right with wisdom and ef- feetiyeness so as both to secure justice from and to do justice to the great corporations which are the most im- portant factors in modern business. believe that 1t is worse than folly to attempt to prohibit all combinations, as is done by the Sherman antitrust hw, because such a law can be en- forced only imperfectly and unequal ly. and its enforcement works almost as much hardship as good I strongly advocate that instead of an unwise effort to prohibit all combinations there shall be substituted a law which shall expressly permit combinations which are in the interest of the public, but 1 shall at the same time give to some | agency of the national government full l power of control and supervision over them. One of the chief features of this control should be securing entire publicity i'll all matters which the pub lie has a right to know and. further more. the power, not by judicial but 1 by executive, action to prevent or put l a stop to every form of improper ia voritism or other wrongdoing. The railways of the country should | be put completely under the interstate commerce commission and removed from the domain of the antitrust law. The power of the commission should be made thoroughgoing. so that it could exercise complete supervision and control over the issue of securities as well as over the raising and lower inc of rates As regards rates, at least this power should be summary. Pow CT to make combinations and traffic agreements should be explicitly con- ferred upon the railroads, the permis- sien of the commission being first gained and the combination or agree ment being published In all its de- tails. The interests of the sharehold- CTS of the employees and of the ship pers should all be guarded as against one another. To give any one of them undue and improper consideration IS to do injustice to the others Rates must be made as low as Is compatible with giving proper returns to all the employees of the railroad. from the highest to the lowest. and proper re turns to the shareholders. but they must not, for instance, be reduced in HANd lNSliDl dc Np ANNtocttHtS N"N 1T the wages of the employees or the abolition of the proper and legitimate profits of honest shareholders.
 Telegraph and telephone companies engaged in interstate business should be put under the jurisdiction of the In terstate commerce commission.
 Ample Rewards For intelligence.
 It is to the interest of all of us that there should be premium put upon individual initiative and individual ca paeity and an ample reward for the great directing intelligences alone com petent to manage the great business operations of today. It is we'll to keep h mind that exactly as the anarcnist b the worst enemy of liberty and the reactionary the worst enemy of oroel Q the mea who defend the rights or property have most to fear from the wrongdoers of great wealth, and the men who arc championing popular fights have most to fear from the demagoGues who h the name Of popu- lar rights would do wrong to and op- press honest business men. honest men of wealth. for the success of either type of wrongdoer necessarily invites violent reaction against the cause the wrongioer nominaliy upholds-
 The opposition to government con trol of these great corporations makes It's most effective effort in the shape of an appeal ro the old doctrine oi states rights.
 The proposal to make the natiohai goYernment supreme over. and tnele fore 10 give it complate control over.