"I see no promise of a complete solution for all the problems we group together when we speak of the trust question. But we can make a beginning in solving these problems, and a good beginning if only we approach the subject with a sufficiency of resolution, of honesty and of that hard common sense which is one of the most valuable, and, unfortunately, not one of the most common, assets in the equipment of any people. I think the national administration has shown its firm intention to enforce the laws as they now stand on the statute books without regard to persons, and I think that good has come from this enforcement. I think, furthermore, that additional legislation should be had, and can be had, which will enable us to accomplish much more than has been accomplished along these same lines." _Theodore Roosevelt, Address at Providence, August 23, 1902 (New York Tribune, August 24, 1902)._ In his next Message to Congress, President Roosevelt renewed his urgency for the needed legislation. "No more important subject can come before the Congress," he said, "than this of the regulation of interstate business. This country cannot afford to sit supine on the plea that under our peculiar system of government we are helpless in the presence of the new conditions, and unable to grapple with them or to cut out whatever of evil has arisen in connection with them. The power of the Congress to regulate interstate commerce is an absolute and unqualified grant, and without limitations other than those prescribed by the Constitution. The Congress has constitutional authority to make all laws necessary and proper for executing this power, and I am satisfied that this power has not been exhausted by any legislation now on the statute books." _President’s Message to Congress, December 2, 1902._ A year later, when the President addressed his Message to the next Congress, at the opening of its first session, he was able to say: "The country is especially to be congratulated on what has been accomplished in the direction of providing for the exercise of supervision over the great corporations and combinations of corporations engaged in interstate commerce. The Congress has created the Department of Commerce and Labor, including the Bureau of Corporations, with for the first time authority to secure proper publicity of such proceedings of these great corporations as the public has the right to know. It has provided for the expediting of suits for the enforcement of the Federal anti-trust law; and by another law it has secured equal treatment to all producers in the transportation of their goods, thus taking a long stride forward in making effective the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission." _President’s Message to Congress, December 1, 1903._