The first need is to exercise this Federal control in thoroughgoing and efficient fashion over the railroads, which, because of their peculiar position, offer the most immediate and urgent problem. The American people abhor a vacuum, and is determined that this control shall be exercised somewhere; it is most unwise for the railroads not to recognize this and to submit to it as the first requisite of the situation. When this control is exercised in some such fashion as it is now exercised over the national banks, there will be no falling off in business prosperity. On the contrary, the chances for the average man to do better will be increased. Undoubtedly there will be much less opportunity than at present for a very few individuals not of the most scrupulous type to amass great fortunes by speculating in and manipulating securities which are issued without any kind of control or supervision. But there will be plenty of room left for ample legitimate reward for business genius, while the chance for the man who is not a business genius, but who is a good, thrifty, hard-working citizen, will be better. I do not believe that our efforts will have anything but a beneficial effect upon the permanent prosperity of the country; and, as a matter of fact, even as regards any temporary effect, I think that any trouble is due fundamentally not to the fact that the national authorities have discovered and corrected certain abuses, but to the fact that those abuses were there to be discovered. I think that the excellent people who have complained of our policy as hurting business have shown much the same spirit as the child who regards the dentist and not the ulcerated tooth as the real source of his woe. I am as certain as I can be of anything that the course we are pursuing will ultimately help business; for the corrupt man of business is as great a foe to this country as the corrupt politician. Both stand on the same evil eminence of infamy. Against both it is necessary to war; and if, unfortunately, in either type of warfare, a few innocent people are hurt, the responsibility lies not with us, but with those who have misled them to their hurt.