United States -- Politics and government -- 1913-1921; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
Turn from the farm to the world of business which centers in the city
and in the factory, and I think that all thoughtful observers will agree
that the immediate service we owe the business communities of the
country is to prevent private monopoly more effectually than it has yet
been prevented. I think it will be easily agreed that we should let the
Sherman antitrust law stand, unaltered, as it is, with its debatable
ground about it, but that we should as much as possible reduce the area
of that debatable ground by further and more explicit legislation; and
should also supplement that great act by legislation which will not
only clarify it but also facilitate its administration and make it
fairer to all concerned. No doubt we shall all wish, and the country
will expect, this to be the central subject of our deliberations during
the present session; but it is a subject so many-sided and so deserving
of careful and discriminating discussion that I shall take the liberty
of addressing you upon it in a special message at a later date than
this. It is of capital importance that the business men of this country
should be relieved of all uncertainties of law with regard to their
enterprises and investments and a clear path indicated which they can
travel without anxiety. It is as important that they should be relieved
of embarrassment and set free to prosper as that private monopoly should
be destroyed. The ways of action should be thrown wide open.
I turn to a subject which I hope can be handled promptly and without
serious controversy of any kind. I mean the method of selecting nominees
for the Presidency of the United States. I feel confident that I do not
misinterpret the wishes or the expectations of the country when I urge
the prompt enactment of legislation which will provide for primary
elections throughout the country at which the voters of the several
parties may choose their nominees for the Presidency without the
intervention of nominating conventions. I venture the suggestion that
this legislation should provide for the retention of party conventions,
but only for the purpose of declaring and accepting the verdict of the
primaries and formulating the platforms of the parties; and I suggest
that these conventions should consist not of delegates chosen for this
single purpose, but of the nominees for Congress, the nominees for
vacant seats in the Senate of the United States, the Senators whose
terms have not yet closed, the national committees, and the candidates
for the Presidency themselves, in order that platforms may be framed by
those responsible to the people for carrying them into effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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