The Green Forest tribune., 1912-03-01
WILL OF PEOPLE SHOULD BE COURT
 OF LAST RESORT, SAYS ROOSEVELT
Ex-Presdent Gives Views on Legislation in Address Before Ohio Constitutional ConventiOn-FavOrs Strict Government Supervision of Big
 Business" Recommendations.

we must pay equal attention to the proper distribution of prosperity. This is true. The only prosperity worth having is that which affects the mass of the people. l hold it to be our duty to see that the wage-worker. the small producer, the ordinary consum- CT, shall get their fair share of the benefit of business prosperity. But 1t either Is or ought to be evident to every one that business has to pros per before anybody can get any bene- fit from it. Therefore I hold that he is the real progressive that he is the genuine champion of the people, who endeavors to shape the policy alike of the nation and of the seEeral states so as to encourage legitimate and honest business at the same time that he wars against all crookedness and injustice and Unfairness and tyranny in the business world (for of course we can only get business put on a basis of permanent prosperity when the element of injustice is taken out of it)
 Regulating Big Business.
 What is needed is, first, the Feeog- milton that modern business conditions have come to stay, in so far at least as these conditions mean that business must be done in larger units, and then the cool-headed and resolute deter mination to introduce an effective method of regulating big corporations 1 oI, 1y,, r, incident to thoroughly and completely safeguarding the interests of the peo- pie as a whole
 It is imperative to exercise over big business a control and su- perYision which is unnecessary as regards small business. All bust ness must be conducted under the law. and all business men, big or little. must act justly But wicked big interest is necessarily more dan gerous to the community than a wicked little interest. Big business in the past has been responsible for much of the special privilege which must be unsparingly cut out of our qational life l do not believe in mak- ing mere size of and by itself crimin- al The mere fact of size, however, does unquestionably carry the po- tentiality of such grave wrong-doing that there should be by law provision made for the strict supervision and regulation of these great industrial concerns doing an interstate business, much as we now regulate the trans portaHon agencies which are engaged in interstate business. The antitrust law does good in so far as 1t can be invoked against combinations which really are monopolies or which restrict production or which artifcially raise prices But in so far as its workings are uncertain, or as it threatens cor, porations which have been guilty of anti-social conduct, it does harm Moreover, it cannot by itself accom-. plish more than a trihi1g part of the governmental regula@aa of big busi- ness which Is needed. The nation and the states must cooperate in this mat ter Among the states that have en- tered this field Wisconsin has taken a leading place.
 All business into which the element Of monopoly in any way or degree en ters, and where it proves in practice impossible totally to eliminate this ele ment of monopoly, should be carefully supervised, regulated and controlled by governmental authority; and sucI control should be exercised by admin istrative, rather than by judicial, off cers No effort should be made to de stroy big corporation merely be cause it is big, merely because it has 1 shown itself a peculiarly efficien l business instrument. But we should not fear, if necessary, to bring tht regulation of big corporations to thc l point of controlling conditions so tha the wage-worker shall have a wage more than sufficient to cover the bar, cost of living, and hours of labor no so excessive as to wreck his strengtl by the strain of intending toll ant leave him unfit to do his duty as good citizen of the community.
 We also maintain that the natiol and the several states have the righ to regulate the terms and condition of labor, which is the chief element o wealth, directly in the interest of tn common good. You, framers of thi constitution, be careful so to frame i that under it the people shall leav themselves free to do whatever i necessary in order to help the farmer of the state to get for themselves an
 their wives and children not only tn
 benefits of better farming but als
 those of better business methods an
 better conditions of life on the farm
 Moreover, shape your constitutions action so that the people will be abl
 through their legislative bodies, ol
 failing that, by direct popular vote, t