The Washington herald., 1911-11-17
Roosevelt's Latest Utterance.

Writing with his accustomed vigor,
Theodore Roosevelt has contributed to
the Outlook an article upon the man.
agement of trusts which will attract
wide attention. He states his position
with his usual directness and clearness,
leaving nothing to the imagination.
Believing that the antitrust law is
inadequate TO meet business conditions
and secure justice to the people, and
thai if left unsupplemented by additional
legislation it might work mischief with
out compensating advantage, Mr. Roose-
welt would either enlarge the powers of
the Bureau of Corporations or else Gre
ate a government commission whose du-
ties and authority in relation to cor
porations would parallel the jurisdiction
of the Interstate Commerce Commission
concerning railroads. He believes that
the national government should have
complete power over the organization
of all business concerns engaged in in
terstate commerce. He does not fear
the assertion that this is tending toward
socialism His answer is that the only
way to meet a billion dollar corpora
ton is by invoking the protection of
hundred billion dollar government
Apart from this suggestion of
panacea for present conditions, Mr..
RooseveltiD article is interesting be-
cause he assumes a judicial rather than
a radical tone For instance, he dis
eliminates between trusts which are
guilty of moral turpitude in destroying
weak competitors and accepting rebates
and those against which nothing can be
said except that they are big Mr.
Roosevelt does not fear big business.
In fact, he regards great corporations
as inevitable and by no means to be
condemned. Nothing of importance is
gained" he says, by breaking up a
huge interstate and international in
dustrial organization, which has not
offended otherwise than by its size, into
a number Of small concerns without any
attempt to regulate the way in which
those concerns as a whole shall do
business"
In asserting that the present system
of attacking each alleged illegal trust
through the medium of separate suits
is absurd and that the only square deal
is to formulate a definite line of con-
duct for all corporations to observe,
Mr.. Roosevelt will find many adherents.
He is courageous enough to insist that
the steel trust is not a monopoly, while
in the same breath, almost, he criticises
as a miscarriage of justice the sanction
given by the courts to the so-called dis
solution of the tobacco trust. He thus
commends himself to those who are
disinclined to regard all large cor
porationS as necessarily evil, and who
take the trouble to analyze actions
and results before rendering their
verdict To the extent that he would
protect big business which is conducted
on proper lines and characterlzes the
position taken by the government as
absolutely destructive of legitimate
business, he is a conservative. He
displays the Roosevelt temperament,
however, in his denunciation of the
trusts whose wicked and depraved
business methods ought to lead, he
says, to the:c absolute disbandment.
His controversy with the administra-
ton over the alleged misstatements in
the governments suit against the steel
trust is but an incident of his utter
ance. The larger questions which he
discusses, his attitude toward big busi-
ness, and his suggestions as to the
course which should be pursued are all
indicative of his earnest and thoughtful
interest in public affairs.