Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1912-03-15
The People Must Govern
Themselves and Aim of
Government Must Be to Con-
troll Business.
AMERICAN BUSINESS
DECLARED HONEST
Wall Street Has Learned That
the Standard Oil and To-
bacco Decisions Are Benefl-
ciaI to the Trusts.

~
IBy Morning Journal Special Leased Wire.I
New York. March l4.--Theodore
Roosevelt has an editorial article in
the current issue OF the outlook en- .
titled 1.-THE Conservation of business
Shall We Strangle or Control III?
1t is in part as 1oiows;
In my speech at Columbus ] trie 4
Ia develop two main lines of thought.
First, that the people must govern
themselves. that they have a right TO
rule, and that we must obtain social
and Industrial justice through genuine
popular government; and, second, that
our aim must be to control business,
not TO strangle 1t. In business we must
conserve ideas, conserve efficiency
conserve 'up-to-date' methods. just
as we conserve our forests, our
streams. our natural resources.
Business Question Moral.
The business question Is strictly a
moral question. We are giving about
rs per cent OF our time fighting
among ourselves about ourselves, and
our foreign commerce and trade, while
such formidable competitors as GER
many iysdoing exactly the reverse the
avera<E American business man ~
hor0 !,s,d ~ just as deSireus of oneyN
ing the law as In any one OF his fei-
low citizens Yet when they come 10
make necessary trade agreements arc
puzzled lest they may find they have
unwittingly transgressed the law, AMI
they are unable to find out In ad-
vance what the law Is.
This is all wrong. There should
be absolute clearness of the law and
there should be a competent admin
istrative body TO do for the world of
Industrial production what the intor
state commerce commission has lone
for the world of Industrial transpor
tation.
Control Big business.
There must be over big business q
control and supervision by the nation,
Tor. II necessary, by the state) whlch
are unnecessary as regards sma u
business. our laws do not prevent
over-capi pitalzation or the fragrant
abuse of power in exploiting the busi-
ness of the people for the personal
gain of few; and yet they threaten
vague disaster, not merely to dishonest
but To honest business men. There Is
urgent need that they should be made
both more definite and efficient.
II is idle to trust such regulation
merely to the effort to prohibit all
IN
the conditions Of sixty years ago. Nor
is IL wise to trust only to success
sion of lawsuits for removing the
evils of monopoly and the ike. In
theory the ultra-opponents OF corpo-
rations have embarked on process OF
sirangling business. The effort has
been successful chiefly to the extent of
alarming all business and has not
been successful as regards thoroughly
and adequately controlling the very
kinds of big business which II is most
urgently necessary thus to control
Wall Street Attitude.
Wall street was inclined to favor
control. being at that time alarmed AZ
to the workings of the antitrust act.
in view OF the recent Standard oil
and Tobacco trust decisions obviously
however. wall street has changed is
mind. II was prepared TO support the
policy of honesty and efficient con-
troll rather than to see the ruin ci
both bad and good business.
But the representatives of the worst
kinds of big business have now con-
cluded that the Standard Oh and To-
nv
the decisions-indeed they were bene-
fitted. These men care nothing Tor
honest business or for the welfare oi
the general business community II II
conflicts with the policy under which
they hope to thrive better than under
a policy OF real control.
What our people want IL that the
evils of big business be eradicated and
the advantage. the benefits. preserved.
| believe that our country Is ripe today
for straightforward, unfiinching,
common sense treatment Of the trust
question. OF course IL is a question.
But this country does not mind tack
ling biu questions The people must
solve H. And they must solve II ~
insisting on Just and wise. but
thorough going and efficient control
People can he Trusted.
Let our opponents OF reactionary
habit make no mistake. The people
are demanding more voice In affsirs
no less than In affairs po-
liticaL our opponents believe that the
peopic cannot te trusted. We be
Hove that They can be- WHY Be
cause they have been educated and be-
cause they are of the siuff that give
loa5 results under education. We be
Ileve IN real democracy for ameries.
because We have a profound faith IN