Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
History
Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
have to submit to governmental action of a far more drastic type.
Personally, I think our people would be most unwise if they let any
exasperation due to the acts of certain great corporations drive them
into drastic action, and I should oppose such action. But the great
corporations are themselves to blame if by their opposition to what is
legal and just they foster the popular feeling which calls for such
drastic action.
Some great corporations resort to every technical expedient to render
enforcement of the law impossible, and their obstructive tactics and
refusal to acquiesce in the policy of the law have taxed to the utmost
the machinery of the Department of Justice. In my judgment Congress may
well inquire whether it should not seek other means for carrying into
effect the law. I believe that all corporations engaged in interstate
commerce should be under the supervision of the National Government. I
do not believe in taking steps hastily or rashly, and it may be that
all that is necessary in the immediate future is to pass an interstate
commerce bill conferring upon some branch of the executive government
the power of effective action to remedy the abuses in connection
with railway transportation. But in the end, and in my judgment at a
time not very far off, we shall have to, or at least we shall find
that we ought to, take further action as regards all corporations
doing interstate business. The enormous increase in interstate trade,
resulting from the industrial development of the last quarter of a
century, makes it proper that the Federal Government should, so far as
may be necessary to carry into effect its national policy, assume a
degree of administrative control of these great corporations.
It may well be that we shall find that the only effective way of
exercising this supervision is to require all corporations engaged
in interstate commerce to produce proof satisfactory, say, to the
Department of Commerce, that they are not parties to any contract or
combination or engaged in any monopoly in interstate trade in violation
of the anti-trust law, and that their conduct on certain other
specified points is proper; and, moreover, that these corporations
shall agree, with a penalty of forfeiture of their right to engage in
such commerce, to furnish any evidence of any kind as to their trade
between the States whenever so required by the Department of Commerce.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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