Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-12-10
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT.


The power Of the commission should
be made thoroughgoing. SO that 1t
could exercise complete supervision
and control over the issue of securities
as we'll as over the raising and lower.
ing Of rates. AS regards rates, at least
this power should be summary. Pow.
er to make combinations and traffic
agreements should be explicitly con.
ferred upon the railroads. the permis-
sion of the commission being first
gained and the combination or agree
ment being published in all its de-
tails. The interests Of the sharehold-
ers, 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
such fashion as to necessitate a cut
In 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.
1t is to the interest Of all Of us that
there should be premium put upon
individual initiative and individual ca
pacity and an ample reward for the
great directing intelligences alone COM
petent to manage the great business
operations Of today. 1t is well to keep
in mind that exactly as the anarchist
is the worst enemy Of liberty and the
reactionary the worst enemy Of order
80 the men who defend the rights Of
property have most to fear from the
wrongdoers Of great wealth, and the
men who are championing popular
rights have most to fear from the
demagogues who In 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 wrongdoer nominally upholds.
The opposition to government con-
troll Of these great corporations makes
Ms most effective effort in the shape
,f an appeal to the old doctrine Of
states rights.
The proposal to make the national
government supreme over, and there
fore to give 1t complete control over,
the railroads and other instruments of
interstate commerce is merely a pro-
posal to carry out to the letter one of
the prime purposes, II not the prime
purpose, for which the constitution
was founded. 1t does not represent
Capitalization.
believe that the more farsighted
corporations are themselves coming to
recognize the unwisdom Of the violent
hostility they have displayed during
the last few years to regulation and
control by the national government of
combinations engaged in interstate busi-
ness.
Labor.
There are many matters affecting Ia
Dor and the status Of the wageworker
to which l should like to draw your
attention. As far as possible hope
to see a frank recognition Of the ad-
vantages conferred by machinery, or
ganization and division Of labor, &C.
companied by an effort to bring about
a larger share In the ownership by
wageworker Of railway. mill and fac
tory. In farming this simply means
that we wish to see the farmer own his
own land. We do not wish to see the
farms so large that they become the
property Of absentee landlords who
teIm them By tenants nor yet 20 small