Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-10-11
CAN Be PROSPEROUS
AND YET Be HONEST
Prejudicial Hostility to Prosperi-
ty is Not Progressivnness.
President Taft's Waterloo Speech TEEN
ed With Good Sense and Hon
est Advice to the People.

One of the best speeches President
Taft has made IN his tour of the
country was that delivered a few days
ago at Waterloo, Iowa, in which he
deprecated the vindiction hastility
expressed against prosperity in nearly
every form by those who are opposing
his administration The speech rings
true and honest and is commended to
the CAREFUL reading and consideration
of those who in politics would rule or
ruin.
In den6ning the relation of the
government to business, the
president announced that the
trust prosecutions begun by the
department of justice at Washington
would continue despite the recent
criticism that business was being
made to suffer He served notice
that the big business interests Of
the country must be brought within
the law just as the railroads have
been, and declined to admit that
there exists any discretion which
would enable the attorney general to
stay the hand of the government in
dealing with com binations in re-
straint Of trade.
SAYS TRUSTS ARE REFORMING.
At the same time the president
made an earnest appeal for reasona BILE
treatment of the railroads and the
industrial corporations on the ground
that their reformation was being
brought about steadily and salts
factorly, and that nothing was to be
gained by ''vindictive hostility.
Mr. Taft bitterly denounced those
politicians who seek to arouse the
prejudices of the people and to array
one section of the country against
another Such utterances he declared
to be those of the blindest Of men. =
The trust prosecutions, Mr.. Taft
said, need not be long continued be-
cause he believed the business com.
munty was rapidly taking in the
effect of the recent decisions of the
Supreme court and were preparing to
square themselves with the law.
CAN BE PROSPEROUS AND HONEST.
I'VE have reached the point, - he
said 'wnere we can call a halt: not
in the progressive movement to keep
business free from abuses. but here
we can call halt against appeals to
a spirit of pure hostility to prosperity
on the theory that no one can be
prosperous without being dishonest or
a vIol2tor Of the law s" Here in
Iowa, the home Of many Of the pro-
gressives in congress. President Taft
declared:
1T is not progressive policy in
any true sense to be hostile to the
prosperity of any part of the country
1t is not progressive to be against
railway corporation because it is a.
corporation, .
Mr. Taft repeatedly detained
against sectional prejudice and un-
reasonable denunciation of corpora
tions by perons seeking political
advantage.
Why" ne asked, Should we al
low the political fortunes of any man
or set of men to mislead us into
hostility toward parts of the country
which is certain to WORK injury to
all2
APPROVES HONEST BUSINESS.
We are all in the same boat !;
tossed by the same waves Let there
be prostration of business IN one large
section and that prostration will
spread quickly to all the rest.
Let us reason together, exclaimed
the president Let us be charitable
and kind Let US not be so suspicious
and ascrlbe corrupt motives to every
one in the community but our parti-
cular friends and political associates
Let us have legislation that helps,
or an absence Of legislation Of it be
unnecessary. And let as approve and
praise the great business enterprise
and genius that honestly and by
proper methods qccumulates property
and puts it into productive industries
shat supports thousands If wOrkmen
and furnishes profit to thos9 whose
savings have goue into the shares and
bonds of the enterprise,
WOULD RESTORE CONFIDENCE.
Business is hating now. There
il doubt ami distlust among investors,
due to fear Of anmity toward sue.
cessful enterprise What is the rene
dy? 1t is the restoration of con
fdence between the classes ri persons
who have been opposing each other in
times past who now, after the reforms
are initiated and are in process of be-