148 Presidential Addresses 



to say the group of problems which come into our 

 minds when we think of the trusts we have two 

 classes of our fellow-citizens whom we have to con 

 vert or override. One is composed of those men 

 who refuse to admit that there is any action neces 

 sary at all. The other is composed of those men 

 who advocate some action so extreme, so foolish, 

 that it would either be entirely non-effective, or, if 

 effective, would be so only by destroying every 

 thing, good and bad, connected with our industrial 

 development. 



In every governmental process the aim that a peo 

 ple capable of self-government should steadfastly 

 keep in mind is to proceed by evolution rather than 

 revolution. On the other hand, every people fit for 

 self-government must beware of that fossilization 

 of mind which refuses to allow of any change as 

 conditions change. Now, in dealing with the whole 

 problem of the change in our great industrial civil 

 ization in dealing with the tendencies which have 

 been accentuated in so extraordinary a degree by 

 steam and electricity, and by the tremendous up 

 building of industrial centres which steam and elec 

 tricity have been the main factors in bringing about 

 I think we must set before ourselves the desire 

 not to accept less than the possible, and at the same 

 time not to bring ourselves to a complete standstill 

 by attempting the impossible. It is a good deal as 

 it is in taking care, through the engineers, of the 

 lower Mississippi River. No one can dam the Mis 

 sissippi. If the nation started to dam it ? the nation 



