Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The Congress has not heretofore made any appropriation for the better
enforcement of the antitrust law as it now stands. Very much has been
done by the Department of Justice in securing the enforcement of this
law, but much more could be done if the Congress would make a special
appropriation for this purpose, to be expended under the direction of
the Attorney-General.
One proposition advocated has been the reduction of the tariff as a
means of reaching the evils of the trusts which fall within the
category I have described. Not merely would this be wholly ineffective,
but the diversion of our efforts in such a direction would mean the
abandonment of all intelligent attempt to do away with these evils.
Many of the largest corporations, many of those which should certainly
be included in any proper scheme of regulation, would not be affected
in the slightest degree by a change in the tariff, save as such change
interfered with the general prosperity of the country. The only
relation of the tariff to big corporations as a whole is that the
tariff makes manufactures profitable, and the tariff remedy proposed
would be in effect simply to make manufactures unprofitable. To remove
the tariff as a punitive measure directed against trusts would
inevitably result in ruin to the weaker competitors who are struggling
against them. Our aim should be not by unwise tariff changes to give
foreign products the advantage over domestic products, but by proper
regulation to give domestic competition a fair chance; and this end can
not be reached by any tariff changes which would affect unfavorably all
domestic competitors, good and bad alike. The question of regulation of
the trusts stands apart from the question of tariff revision.
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