Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 3 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
History
Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 3 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
character among the several States.
* * * * *
When we come to deal with great corporations the need for the
Government to act directly is far greater than in the case of labor,
because great corporations can become such only by engaging in
interstate commerce, and interstate commerce is peculiarly the field
of the General Government. It is an absurdity to expect to eliminate
the abuses in great corporations by State action. It is difficult to
be patient with an argument that such matters should be left to the
States, because more than one State pursues the policy of creating on
easy terms corporations which are never operated within that State
at all, but in other States whose laws they ignore. The National
Government alone can deal adequately with these great corporations.
To try to deal with them in an intemperate, destructive, or demagogic
spirit would, in all probability, mean that nothing whatever would
be accomplished, and, with absolute certainty, that if anything were
accomplished it would be of a harmful nature. The American people need
to continue to show the very qualities that they have shown—that is,
moderation, good sense, the earnest desire to avoid doing any damage,
and yet the quiet determination to proceed, step by step, without halt
and without hurry, in eliminating or at least in minimizing whatever
of mischief or of evil there is to interstate commerce in the conduct
of great corporations. They are acting in no spirit of hostility to
wealth, either individual or corporate. They are not against the rich
man any more than against the poor man. On the contrary, they are
friendly alike toward rich man and toward poor man, provided only that
each acts in a spirit of justice and decency toward his fellows. Great
corporations are necessary, and only men of great and singular mental
power can manage such corporations successfully, and such men must have
great rewards. But these corporations should be managed with due regard
to the interests of the public as a whole. Where this can be done under
the present laws it must be done. Where these laws come short others
should be enacted to supplement them.
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