154 Presidential Addresses 



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already laws on the statute books. Those laws will 

 be enforced, and are being enforced, with all the 

 power of the National Government, and wholly 

 without regard to persons. But the power is very 

 limited. Now I want you to take my words at their 

 exact value. I think I can not say I am sure, be 

 cause it has often happened in the past that Congress 

 has passed a law with a given purpose in view, and 

 when that law has been judicially interpreted it has 

 proved that the purpose was not achieved but I 

 think that by legislation additional power in the way 

 of regulation of at least a number of these great 

 corporations can be conferred. But, gentlemen, I 

 firmly believe that in the end power must be given 

 to the National Government to exercise in full su 

 pervision and regulation of these great enterprises, 

 and, if necessary, a Constitutional amendment must 

 be resorted to for this purpose. 



That is not new doctrine for me. That is the 

 doctrine that I advocated on the stump two years 

 ago. Some of my ultra-conservative friends have 

 professed to be greatly shocked at my advocating 

 it now. I would explain to those gentlemen, once 

 for all, that they err whenever they think that I ad 

 vocate on the stump anything that I will not try to 

 put into effect after election. The objection is made 

 that working along these lines will take time. So 

 it will. Let me go back to my illustration of the 

 Mississippi River. It took time to build the levees, 

 but we built them. And if we have the proper 

 intelligence, the proper resolution, and the proper 



