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Show I " 1 .... I ROOSEVELT'S KEYNOTE J TO RAILROAD CONTROL J Is for an increase In the poer of the National Nation-al Government to heap th. great highways of commerce open alike to all on raaaooabl. and equitable terms. Less than a c.nturv uo the., highways w.r still, ss they had bn sine, tan dawn of history, elth.r waterways, natural or artlflrlal. r .Is. crdlnary roads for wheel vehicles drawn by animal power The railroad, which was utterly unknown when our Government was formed and when the treat principles of our Jurisprudence were laid down, has now become almost everywhere the most lmportsnt. and. In many larse regions, re-gions, the only form of hiirhwmy for commerce. The man who controls Its use cannot be permitted per-mitted to control It In his own Interest alone. It Is not only Just but It la in the Interest of th. public that this man should receive the amplest payment for th. masterful business capacity which enables hlra to benefit himself while benefiting; the public, but In return he must himself recognise his duty to ths public. pub-lic. He will not and cannot do this If our laws are so defective that In the sharp competition com-petition of the business world the conscientious man Is put at a disadvantage by less scrupulous scrupu-lous fellows. It Is in the Interest of the conscientious con-scientious and public-spirited railway man that there should be such governmental supervision super-vision of the railway traffic of the country aa to require from his less scrupulous competitors competi-tors and from urwcrupulous big shippers as well, that heed to the publlo welfare which he himself would willingly give, and which la of vital consequence to the small shipper. Every Important railroad Is engaged In Interstate Inter-state commerce. Therefore, this control over the railroads must come through the National Government. The control must be exercised by some governmental gov-ernmental tribunal, and It must be real and effective. Doubtless there will be risk that occasionally, if an unfit President Is elected, this control will be abused; but this Is only another way of saying that any adequate governmental gov-ernmental power, from the power of taxation doan. can and will be abused If the wrong men get control of It. e e We do not Intend that this Republic -shall ever fall, as those republics of olden time failed, In which there Anally came to be a government by classes, which resulted either In the poor plundering the rich or In the rich exploiting and In one form or another enslaving en-slaving the poor, fw either event means the destruction of free Institutions and of Individual Indi-vidual liberty. Ours Is not a Government which recognises classes. It Is baaed on the recognition of the individual. We are not for the poor man as such, nor for the rich man as such. We are for every man, rich or poor, provided he acts Justly and fairly by his fellows, and If he so acts the Government must do all It can to se. that Inasmuch at he dots no wrong, so he shall suffer no wrong. PHILADELPHIA, Jsn. 31. President Roosevelt was 'the guest of honor and principal speaker last night at the forty-second forty-second anniversary banquet of the Union league. The President came to this city over the Pennsylvania road from Annapolis, Annapo-lis, where he attended the exercises this afternoon incident to tho graduation of the senior class of cadets. President Roosevelt, In his address, said In part. This club was founded to uphold the hands of Abraham Lincoln when he stood as the great leader In the struggle for union and liberty. lib-erty. We have a right, therefore, to appeal to this club for aid in every governmental or social effort made along the lines marked out by Lincoln. The great President taught many lessons which we who come after him should learn. Among the most Important of thesa was the lesson that for weal or for woe we are lndlssolubly bound together. In whatever part of the country we live, whatever what-ever oar social standing, whatever our wealth or our poverty, whatever form of mental or physical activity our life work may assume. Lincoln, who was. more emphatically than any other President we have ever had. the President of the plain people, was yet as far removed as Washington himself from the slightest tslnt of demagogy. With his usual farsighted clearness of vision he saw that In a Republic such aa ours, permanent prosper I-, ty of any part of our people waa conditioned upon the prosperity of all, and that, on the other hand, any effort to raise the general level of happiness by striking at the well-being well-being of a portion of the people could not but be In the end disastrous to all. The principles which Lincoln applied to the solution of the problems of his day are those which we must apply If we expect successfully success-fully to solve the different problems of our own day problems which are so largely Industrial. In-dustrial. Exactly aa It is Impossible to develop de-velop a high morality unless we have as a foundation those qualities which give at least a certain minimum of material prosperity, so It Is impossible permanently to keep material prosperity unless there la back of It a basis of light living and right thinking. e . fnquestlonably, however, the great development develop-ment of Industrialism means that there must be an Increase In the supervision exercised by the Government over business enterprise. This supervision should not take the form ot violent and Ill-advised Interference, and assuredly as-suredly there Is danger lest it take such form If the business community con One themselves to trying to thwart the effort at regulation Instead In-stead of guiding It aright. Such men aa the members of this club should lead In the effort to secure proper supervision and regulation of corporate activity by the Government, not only becauso It Is for the Interest of the community com-munity as a whole that there should be this supervision and regulation, but because la the long run It will be In the Interest above all of the very people who often betray alarm and anger when the proposition Is first mad. Neither this people nor any other free people peo-ple will permanently tolerate the use of the vast power conferred by vast wealth, and especially by wealth In Its corporate form, without lodging somewhere In the Government Govern-ment the still higher power of seeing that thla power, la addition to being used In the Inter-eat Inter-eat of the Individual or individuals possessing it. Is also used for and not against the interests inter-ests of the people as a whole. see - 4t th present moment the greatest need i |
