140 Presidential Addresses 



of the country is at least a quack, and at worst an 

 enemy to the Republic. 



In 1893 there was no trouble about anybody mak 

 ing too much money. The trusts were down, but 

 the trouble was that we were all of us down. Noth 

 ing but harm to the whole body politic can come 

 from ignorant agitation, carried on partially against 

 real evils, partially against imaginary evils, but in a 

 spirit which would substitute for the real evils evils 

 just as real and infinitely greater. Those men, if 

 they should succeed, could do nothing to bring about 

 a solution of the great problems with which we are 

 concerned. If they could destroy certain of the 

 evils at the cost of overthrowing the well-being of 

 the entire country, it would mean merely that there 

 would come a reaction in which they and their reme 

 dies would be hopelessly discredited. 



Now, it does not do anybody any good, and it will 

 do most of us a great deal of harm, to take steps 

 which will check any proper growth in a corpora 

 tion. We wish not to penalize but to reward a great 

 captain of industry or the men banded together in a 

 corporation who have the business forethought and 

 energy necessary to build up a great industrial en 

 terprise. Keep that in mind. A big corporation may 

 be doing excellent work for the whole country, and 

 you want, above all things, when striving to get a 

 plan which will prevent wrong-doing by a corpora 

 tion which desires to do wrong, not at the same time 

 to have a scheme which will interfere with a cor 

 poration doing well, if that corporation is handling 



