Weekly journal-miner. [volume] (Prescott, Ariz.) 1908-1929, 1914-02-04
IS THE PRESIDENT A
POLITICAL PLAGARIST?
(By Winfield Jones.)

!, is the president using hashed-u
y ideas OF former presidents in som
r OF his messages to congress?
0 Republicans in congress ar
! declaring that Mr. Wilson, in hi
: recent antitrust message, merel
. used some OF the expressions D
r President Roosevelt on the trus
, question, dressed up in Princetones
/ language, but with the nibbin in tn
corn unchanged.
The Republican leaders declar,
that in much that President Wilson
said about the necessity for tn:
control and regulation .: big bust
ness" by the government. he wa,
merely following in the footsteps o.
former President Roosevelt.
| While these two distinguished
Americans undoubtedly appear to b,
thinking along the same lines, the
Republicans insist that it would not
be inappropriate to prove their con-
tention with a few extracts from
the public utterances OF Colonel
Roosevelt. By way OF comparison
with the antitrust message some OF
these extracts are OF unusual inter
est. They follow:
From President Roosevelt's first
message, December |, 1901:
Combination and concentration
should be, not prohibited, but su-
pervised and within reasonable lin
its controlled.
an the interest of the whole
people the nation should, without
interfering with the power OF the
States in the matter itself, also as
sumo power of supervision and reg
ulation over all corporations doing
an interstate business. This is es-
pecially true where the corporation
derives portion of its wealth from
the existence of some monopolistic
element or tendency in its business"
From President Roosevelt's mes
sage, December s, 1904:
when we come TO deal with
great corporations the need for the
government to act directly is far
greater than in the case of labor,
because great corporations can be-
come such only by engaging in in
terstate commerce, and interstate
commerce is peculiarly the field of
the government
The policy OF the bureau of cor
porations is to accomplish the pur-
poses OF its creation by cooperation,
not antagonism: by making con-
structive legislation, not destructive |
prosecution. the immediate object
OF its inquiries
From President Roosevelt's mes
sage OF December 5. 1905:
The fortunes amasSed through |
corporate organizations are now so
large, and vest such power in those
that WELD them. as to make it a
matter of necessity to give to the
is, to the govern
ment. which represents the people
as wholesome effective power OF
over their corporate
use.
What is needed is not sweeping
prohibition OF every arrangement.
good or bad. which may tend to re-
strict competition, but such adc-
luate supervision and regulation as
will prevent other abuses in no way
with restriction and COM
petition"
From Colonel Roosevelt's Char
.er of Democracy" Columbus, Ohio.
February 2l, 1912:
What is needed is first. the res
ignition that modern business COIL
litions have come to stay, insofar
IT least as these conditions mean
hat business must be done in larger
initS, and then the cool-headed and
esolute determination to introduce
III effective method OF regulating
zig corporations so as to help legi-
innate business as an incident to
thoroughly and completely safe
the interests OF the people
$ a whole.
an other words, our demand is A.,
hat big business give the people
square deal and that the people
1--WE square deal to any man ell
aged in big business who honestly
ndeavors to do what is right and
From President Roosevelt's mes :.
age OF December s. 1908: u
81 can only repeat what I have
lready again and again said in my
Messages TO the congress. | be-
eve that under the interstate :
lausc OF the constitution the Unit
d States has complete and par :,
mount riori,t - .a,@rOi III auauciec u