true, abuses connected
with the accumulation of wealth; yet no fortune can be accumulated in
legitimate business except by conferring immense incidental benefits
upon others. The men who have driven the great railways across the
continent, who have built up commerce and developed manufactures, have
on the whole done great good to the people at large. Without such men
the material development of which Americans are so justly proud never
could have taken place. They should therefore recognize the immense
importance of this material development by leaving as unhampered as is
compatible with the public good the strong men upon whom the success of
business inevitably rests. It cannot too often be pointed out that to
strike with ignorant violence at the interests of one set of men almost
inevitably endangers the interests of all. The fundamental rule in
American national life is that, on the whole and in the long run, we
shall all go up or down together. Many of those who have made it their
vocation to denounce the great industrial combinations appeal especially
to the primitive instincts of hatred and fear. These are precisely the
two emotions which unfit men for cool and steady judgment. The whole
history of the world shows that legislation, in facing new industrial
conditions, will generally be both unwise and ineffective unless it is
undertaken only after calm inquiry and with sober self-restraint.

This is one side of the picture as it was presented by the President in
his message to Congress. It was characteristic that this aspect should
be put first, for Roosevelt always insisted upon doing justice to the
other side before he demanded justice for his own. But he then proceeded
to set forth the other side with equal vigor: There is a widespread
conviction in the minds of the American people that the great
corporations are in certain of their features and tendencies hurtful to
the general welfare. It is true that real and grave evils have arisen,
one of the chief of them being overcapitalization, with its many
baleful consequences. This state of affairs demands that combination and
concentration in business should be, not prohibited, but supervised
and controlled. Corporations engaged in interstate commerce should be
regulated if they are found to exercise a license working to the public
injury. The first essential in determining how to deal with the great
industrial combinations is knowledge of the facts. This is to be