Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-09-12
ROOSEVELTS CONFESSION OF
FAITH"
(Seventh Installment.)
Honest business Not Threatened.

We promise nothing which will Jeo-
pardiZe honest business. We prom
Use adequate control of all big busi-
ness and the stern suppression of the
evils connected with big business,
and this promise we can absolutely
keep. Our proposal is to help honest
business activity, however extensive.
and to see that it is rewarded with
fair returns to that there may be no
oppression either of business men or
of the common people. We propose
to make it worth while for our busi
ness men to develop the most eff
cient business agencies for use in in
ternational trade; for it is to the
interest of Our whole people that we
should do well in international busi-
ness. But we propose to make those
business agencies do complete justice
to our own people Every dishonest
business man will unquestionably
prefer either the program of the re-
publican convention or the program
of the democratic convention to our
proposal because neither of these
programs means or can mean what It
purports to mean. But every hon
est business man, big or little, should
support the progressive program,
and it is the one and only program
which offers real hope to all our
people, for it is the one program
under which the government can be
used with real efficiency to see JUS
tice done by the big corporation alike
to the wage-earners it employs, to
the small rivals with whom it COM
petes. to the investors who purchase
its securities and to the consumers
who purchase its products, or to the
general public which it ought to
serve, as well as to the business man
himself.
We favor cooperation in business,
and ask only that it be carried on in
spirit of honesty and fairness. We
are against crooked business, big or
little. We propose to penalize con-
duct and not size. But all very big
business, even though honestly con-
Quoted, is fraught with such poten-
tiality of menace that there should
be thoroughgoing governmental con-
troll over it, so that its efficiency in
promoting prosperity at home and
increasing the power of the nation
in international commerce may be
maintained and at the same time fair
play insured to the wage-workers,
the small business competitors, the
investors and the general public.
Wherever it is practicable we propose
| to preserve competition; but where
under modern conditions competition
has been eliminated and connot be
successfully restored, then the gov
ernment must step in and itself SUP
ply the needed control on behalf of
the people as a whole.
1t is imperative to the welfare of
our people that we enlarge and eX-
tend our foreign commerce. We are
pre-eminently fitted to do this be-
cause as a people we have developed
high skill in the art of manufactur-
ing; our business men are strong eX-
ecutives, strong organizers. In every
way possible our federal government
should cooperate in this important
matter. Any one who has had oppor-
tunity to study and observe first
hand Germany's course in this re-
spect must realize that their policy
of cooperation between government
and business has in comparatively
few years made them a leading com
petitor for the commerce OF the
world 1t should be remembered
that they are doing this on ma
tional scale and with large units oi
business, while the democrats would
have us believe that we should do il
with small units of business, which
would be controlled not by the ma
httf h.,
flicting state sovereignties. Such &
policy is utterly out of keeping with
the progress of the times and gives
our great commercial rivals in Eu
rope-hungry for international mar
kets-golden opportunities of which
they are rapidly taking advantage.
Foreign Trade Is Needed.
very much wish that Legitimate
business would no longer permit it
self to be frightened by the outcries
of illegitimate business into belieV
ing that they have any communit!
of interest Legitimate business
ought to understand that it's inter
ests are jeopardized when they are
confounded with those of illegitimatt
business; and the latter. wheneve
threatened with just control, always
tries to persuade the former that 1
also is endangered. AS a matter o
fact, if legitimate business can onl!
be persuaded to look cool-headedl,
into our proposition, it is bound t.
support us.
There are number of lesser bu
still important ways of improvin
4 our business situation. 1t is not nee
essary to enumerate all of them, bu
= | desire to allude to two, which cal
> be adopted forthwith. Our paten
: laws should be remodeled patent
can secure ample royalties to invent
: ors without our permitting them t
= be tools of monopoly or shut out @
a general use; and a parcels post, o
:, the zone principle, should be estat
:, lished.
Protective Tariff Favored.
!: believe in a protective tariff, bu
r, believe in it as a principle, al
d preached from the standpoint of tn
t. interests of the whole people, an
e not as a bundle of preferences to /
re given to favored individuals. In m
rs opinion the American people fave
ly the principle of a protective tariff
re but they desire such tariff to
De established primarily in the interes
IN nf tho wapa-wOrkar and tha pOnSun