Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
prosperity--of the progress of our gigantic industrial development.
This industrial development must not be checked, but side by side with
it should go such progressive regulation as will diminish the evils. We
should fail in our duty if we did not try to remedy the evils, but we
shall succeed only if we proceed patiently, with practical common sense
as well as resolution, separating the good from the bad and holding on
to the former while endeavoring to get rid of the latter.
In my Message to the present Congress at its first session I discussed
at length the question of the regulation of those big corporations
commonly doing an interstate business, often with some tendency to
monopoly, which are popularly known as trusts. The experience of the
past year has emphasized, in my opinion, the desirability of the steps
I then proposed. A fundamental requisite of social efficiency is a high
standard of individual energy and excellence; but this is in no wise
inconsistent with power to act in combination for aims which can not so
well be achieved by the individual acting alone. A fundamental base of
civilization is the inviolability of property; but this is in no wise
inconsistent with the right of society to regulate the exercise of the
artificial powers which it confers upon the owners of property, under
the name of corporate franchises, in such a way as to prevent the
misuse of these powers. Corporations, and especially combinations of
corporations, should be managed under public regulation. Experience has
shown that under our system of government the necessary supervision can
not be obtained by State action. It must therefore be achieved by
national action. Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the
contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of
modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile
unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the
entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating
and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds
that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away
with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely
determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public
good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth. The
capitalist who, alone or in conjunction with his fellows, performs some
great industrial feat by which he wins money is a welldoer, not a
wrongdoer, provided only he works in proper and legitimate lines. We
wish to favor such a man when he does well. We wish to supervise and
control his actions only to prevent him from doing ill. Publicity can
do no harm to the honest corporation; and we need not be over tender
about sparing the dishonest corporation. In curbing and regulating the
combinations of capital which are, or may become, injurious to the
public we must be careful not to stop the great enterprises which have
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