tained it seems to be coming to a clear and all but universal
agreement in anticipation of our action, as if by way of preparation,
making the way easier to see and easier to set out upon with confidence
and without confusion of counsel.

Legislation has its atmosphere like everything else, and the atmosphere
of accommodation and mutual understanding which we now breathe with so
much refreshment is matter of sincere congratulation. It ought to make
our task very much less difficult and embarrassing than it would have
been had we been obliged to continue to act amidst the atmosphere of
suspicion and antagonism which has so long made it impossible to
approach such questions with dispassionate fairness. Constructive
legislation, when successful, is always the embodiment of convincing
experience, and of the mature public opinion which finally springs out
of that experience. Legislation is a business of interpretation, not of
origination; and it is now plain what the opinion is to which we must
give effect in this matter. It is not recent or hasty opinion. It
springs out of the experience of a whole generation. It has clarified
itself by long contest, and those who for a long time battled with it
and sought to change it are now frankly and honorably yielding to it and
seeking to conform their actions to it.

The great business men who organized and financed monopoly and those who
administered it in actual everyday transactions have year after year,
until now, either denied its existence or justified it as necessary for
the effective maintenance and development of the vast business processes
of the country in the modern circumstances of trade and manufacture and
finance; but all the while opinion has made head against them. The
average business man is convinced that the ways of liberty are also the
ways of peace and the ways of success as well; and at last the masters
of business on the great scale have begun to yield their preference and
purpose, perhaps their judgment also, in honorable surrender.

What we are purposing to do, therefore, is, happily, not to hamper or
interfere with business as enlightened business men prefer to do it, or
in any sense to put it under the ban. The antagonism between business
and government is over. We are now about to give expression to the best
business judgment of America, to what we know to be the business
conscience and honor of the land. The Government and business men are
ready to mee