er
have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes
growing purple in the amorous kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather
have been that poor peasant, with my loving wife by my side, knitting as
the day died out of the sky, with my children upon my knees and their
arms about me. I would rather have been that man, and gone down to the
tongueless silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that
imperial impersonation of force and murder, known as Napoleon the
Great."

FOOTNOTE:

[48] By permission of C. P. Farrell, publisher.

NATIONAL CONTROL OF CORPORATIONS[49]

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

When this government was founded there were no great individual or
corporate fortunes, and commerce and industry were being carried on very
much as they had been carried on in the days when Nineveh and Babylon
stood in the Mesopotamian Valley. Sails, oars, wheels--those were the
instruments of commerce. The pack train, the wagon train, the row boat,
the sailing craft--those were the methods of commerce. Everything has
been revolutionized in the business world since then, and the progress
of civilization from being a dribble has become a torrent. There was no
particular need at that time of bothering as to whether the nation or
the state had control of corporations. They were easy to control. Now,
however, the exact reverse is the case. And remember when I say
corporations I do not mean merely trusts, technically so-called, merely
combinations of corporations, or corporations under certain peculiar
conditions. For instance, some time ago the Attorney General took action
against a certain trust. There was considerable discussion as to whether
the trust aimed at would not seek to get out from under the law by
becoming a single corporation. Now I want laws that will enable us to
deal with any evil no matter what shape it takes.

I want to see the government able to get at it definitely, so that the
action of the government cannot be evaded by any turning within or
without federal or state statutes. At present we have really no
efficient control over a big corporation which does business in more
than one state. Frequently the corporation has nothing whatever to do
with the state in which it is incorporated except to get incorporated;
and all its business may be done in entirely different
communities--communities which may object very much to the methods of
incorporation in the state named. I do not believ