Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 2 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
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Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 2 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract to
require that when men receive from government the privilege of doing
business under corporate form, which frees them from individual
responsibility, and enables them to call into their enterprises the
capital of the public, they shall do so upon absolutely truthful
representations as to the value of the property in which the capital
is to be invested. Corporations engaged in interstate commerce should
be regulated if they are found to exercise a license working to the
public injury. It should be as much the aim of those who seek for
social betterment to rid the business world of crimes of cunning
as to rid the entire body politic of crimes of violence. Great
corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by
our institutions; and it is therefore our right and our duty to see
that they work in harmony with these institutions.
The first essential in determining how to deal with the great
industrial combinations is knowledge of the facts—publicity. In the
interest of the public, the government should have the right to
inspect and examine the workings of the great corporations engaged
in interstate business. Publicity is the only sure remedy which
we can now invoke. What further remedies are needed in the way of
governmental regulation, or taxation, can only be determined after
publicity has been obtained, by process of law, and in the course
of administration. The first requisite is knowledge, full and
complete—knowledge which may be made public to the world.
Artificial bodies, such as corporations and joint stock or other
associations, depending upon any statutory law for their existence or
privileges, should be subject to proper governmental supervision, and
full and accurate information as to their operations should be made
public regularly at reasonable intervals.
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