Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-05-01
ANOTHER MESSAGE.

The message was not read until
Tuesday. In the main the document
is recapitulation of other messages
which have recently been sent in by
the executive.
Among other things Mr.. Roosevelt
says that while the employers liability
law which has been enacted comes
short of what should have been done,
it nevertheless represents an advance.
The President again recommends the
enactment of child labor law in the
District of Columbia; the continuance
OF the waterways commission by pro-
viding sufficient financial support to
render its work effective; means to be
provided for carrying out the import
ant feature of the Hepburn law; the es-
Enlistment of forest reserves through
out the Appalachian Mountain region;
abridgement of the powers of injunc-
ton; protests against what he calls
"class consciousness" also against
demagogues and foolish socialistic Wis
ionaries;;" the Strengthening of the anti
trust law.
The president gives resume of in
terstate legislation, and among other
things says: "Power should unques-
tionably be lodged somewhere in the
executive branch of the government to
permit combinations which will fur
Their the public interest; but it must al
ways be remembered that, as regards
the great and wealthy combinations
through which most of the interstate
business of today is done, the burden
of proof should be on them to show
that they have right to exist. No
judicial tribunal has the knowledge or
the experience to determine in the first
place wheter given combination is
advisable or necessary in the interest
of the public. Somebody, whether a
commission, or bureau under the De
partment of Commerce and Labor,
should be given this power. My per-
sonal belief is that ultimately we shall
have to adopt national incorporation
law, though L am well aware that this
may be impossible at present. Over
the actions Of the executive body in
which the power is placed the courts
should possess merely power of re-
view analogous to that obtained in con-
nection with the work of the Interstate
Commerce Commission at present. To
confer this power would not be leap
in the dark; it would merely be to car
ry still further the theory of effective
governmental control Of corporations
which was responsible for the creation
of the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion and for the enlargement of it's
powers, and for the creation of the
Bureau of Corporations.
The president enters into an exhaus-
tive review of national and State legis-
lation on interstate commerce lines
and he makes certain recommended
tions which he thinks may bring about
better relations between capital and
labor.
In concluding the president says:
"Among the many kinds of evil, So
cial, industrial, and political, which is
our duty as nation sternly to combat,
there is none at the same time more
base and more dangerous than the
greed which treats the plain and SIM
pie rules of honesty with cynical con-
tempt if they interfere with making a
profit; and as a nation we can not be
held guiltless if we condone such &C
ton. The man who breaches hatred
of wealth honestly acquired, who in
culcates envy and jealously and sland-
erous illwill toward those of his fell
lows who by thrift, energy and indus
try have become men of means, isl
menace to the community. But his
counterpart in evil is to be found in
that particular kind of multi-million-
aire who is almost the least enviable,
and is certainly one of the least adj
mirable, of all our citizens; man of
whom it has been well said that his
face has grown hard and cruel while
his body has grown soft; whose son is
fool and his daughter foreign princess;
whose nominal pleasures are at best
those of tasteless and extravaganza
luxury, and whose real delight, whose
real life work, is the accumulation
and use of power in its most sOrdid
and least elevating form. In the chaos
of an absolutely unrestricted COM
mercial individualism under modern
conditions, this is type that becomes
prominent in the physical chaos of the
dark ages. We are striving for legisla-
ton to minimize the abuses which give
this type its fiourishing prominence,
partly for the sake of what can be ac-
complished by the legislation itself,
and partly because the legislation
marks our participation in great and
stern moral movement to bring our
ideals and our conduct into measurable