"All this is true; and yet it is also true that there are real and grave evils, one of the chief being over-capitalization because of its many baleful consequences; and a resolute and practical effort must be made to correct these evils. There is a widespread conviction in the minds of the American people that the great corporations known as trusts are in certain of their features and tendencies hurtful to the general welfare. This springs from no spirit of envy or uncharitableness, nor lack of pride in the great industrial achievements that have placed this country at the head of the nations struggling for commercial supremacy. … It is based upon sincere conviction that combination and concentration should be, not prohibited, but supervised and within reasonable limits controlled; and in my judgment this conviction is right. … The first essential in determining how to deal with the great industrial combinations is knowledge of the facts—publicity. In the interests of the public, the Government should have the right to inspect and examine the workings of the great corporations engaged in interstate business. … "When the Constitution was adopted, at the end of the eighteenth century, no human wisdom could foretell the sweeping changes, alike in industrial and political conditions, which were to take place by the beginning of the twentieth century. At that time it was accepted as a matter of course that the several States were the proper authorities to regulate so far as was then necessary, the comparatively insignificant and strictly localized corporate bodies of the day. The conditions are now wholly different and wholly different action is called for. I believe that a law can be framed which will enable the National Government to exercise control along the lines above indicated; profiting by the experience gained through the passage and administration of the Interstate-Commerce Act. If, however, the judgment of the Congress is that it lacks the constitutional power to pass such an act, then a constitutional amendment should be submitted to confer the power." _President’s Message to Congress, December 3, 1901._ In the following summer, during a tour which he made through some of the New England States the President gave prominence to the same subject in his addresses, emphasizing the necessity of federal legislation to arm the General Government with more effective authority for regulating the action of corporations engaged in interstate trade. In speaking at Providence especially, his remarks caused a great stir of feeling in the country, and seem to have signalled the beginning of an open array of hostile corporate interests against him. On that occasion he spoke partly as follows: