And State Papers 139 



nothing on the stump that I did not think I could 

 make good, and I shall not hesitate now to take the 

 position which I then advocated. 



I am even more anxious that you who hear what 

 I say should think of it than that you should applaud 

 it. I am not going to try to define with technical 

 accuracy what ought to be meant when we speak of 

 a trust. But if by trust we mean merely a big cor 

 poration, then I ask you to ponder the utter folly 

 of the man who either in a spirit of rancor or in a 

 spirit of folly says "destroy the trusts," without giv 

 ing you an idea of what he means really to do. I 

 will go with him if he says destroy the evil in the 

 trusts, gladly. I will try to find out that evil, I 

 will seek to apply remedies, which I have already 

 outlined in other speeches; but if his policy, from 

 whatever motive, whether hatred, fear, panic or 

 just sheer ignorance, is to destroy the trusts in a 

 way that will destroy all our property no. Those 

 men who advocate wild and foolish remedies which 

 would be worse than the disease are doing all in 

 their power to perpetuate the evils against which 

 they nominally war, because, if we are brought face 

 to face with the naked issue of either keeping or 

 totally destroying a prosperity in which the major 

 ity share, but in which some share improperly, why, 

 as sensible men, we must decide that it is a great 

 deal better that some people should prosper too 

 much than that no one should prosper enough. So 

 that the man who advocates destroying the trusts 

 by measures which would paralyze the industries 



