Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-17
ROOSEVELT AND
81 S.A - ~ sf9s
J WALL STREET
Attitude Of Late Express
! dent Toward Financial
World Described.

The death Of Theodore Roosevelt4
! came as . genuine shock to wall
stIeeet, Wal street had come, to- ad-
mlre him. He got things done.". He
adohorred red tape. He was a great !
organizer. He surrounded himself
win big men. He was the man to
nave for president in time of war.
frfm time to time from the mouths
strWall street meh-men who, a few
her years before. had been de- !
nonncing him, asa demagogue and a
menace.. Whence came this change
orSvlew? Had Wall street come to
Ropsevelt, or had Roosevelt come to
l6Wsall street? 49,
Their former mutual attitude is
: qXaintly revealed in the story pri-
now, was a banker and railroad or
ganizer Of international repute.
roosevelt came to him when running
ZOE his, second presidential term and
aHked quite frankly:
why does Wall street hate me 2"
@Wal street doesn't hate you as q
man Mr.. Roosevelt" replied the
banker; but you have frightened it.
!tsiears you, will unsettle the, country's
business. You have done a lot Of
talking"
THE colonel broke in. "when I first
came into public life" he said, this
country was asleep. I started talk7
ing. and I have been talking ever
since, and 1 find you have to do a
tSs"end0us lot Of shouting to wake it
How the colonel proceeded to "Hake
u" the country is a familiar story
Upon President McKinley's death, he
expressed his intention to continue
htH predecessors policies absolutely
u~nproken." His first message to con-
gress contained words that today
would be regarded as a model of con-
seIVattsnn. ''The startling increase in
TIA number of very large individual,
ana especially Of very large. corpor-
ate fortunes was due to natural
causes in h business world"-a
process which had aroused much an
taEonism, a great part Of which is
wholly without warrant" He advised
Caution lin dealing with corpor-
ATOMS" because ITO strike with ig-
}IseA of men almost inevitably endang-
eHg the interests of all' and because
the mechanism Of modern business
issso delicate that extreme care must
bsstaken not to interfere with it in a
spirit Of rashness or ignorance" -.
fWafl street was SO treasured that
it@paid little attention to the further
declarations: that there are real and
grave evils, one Of the chief being
and concentration should be, not pro-
hibited, but supervised and within
reasonable limits controlled" and that
Corporations engaged in int rstate
commerce should be regulated If they
are found to exercise a license work
ing to the public injury"
He began with the Northern Sc
@,,-s> eAnn nnn Ann
holding corporation formed to control
the. Northern Pacific, Great Northern
and Burlington. There was wide
spread talk of consolidating all the
railroads OF The country into two or
three large holding companies. The
instrument selected to thwart such
schemes Was:Athe Sherman a.anti-trust
Ian, on TIE statute books, but dead
letter since 1890. The company was
thA supremessc court, and it's dissolu-
tioI ordered III
While this case was still being
fought in the courts, Roosevelt turned
to the question of railroad rates and
rebating. He agitated for the Hep
burn bill..a measure to give the in
terstate commerce commission power
to prescribe just and reasonable max
imum rates. That body, created un-
der the law of 1887,.had hitherto had
power only to make investigation on
complaint Of shippers: its decisions
had been contested in the courts by
thA railroads, and delayed for periods
AVERAGING four years. Finding the
Hepburn bill blocked, President
Roosevelt ordered Charles T.. Hughes
toainvestigate conditions in the Penn
sylvania coal fields. Disclosures fol-
y lowed Pennsylvania railroad en-
~ nloyes ware taking mOnev and stock
from favored shippers. The Hepburn