Presidential Addresses 



stating facts so obvious that if each one of you will 

 think them over you will think them trite, but if 

 you read or listen to some of the arguments ad 

 vanced, you will come to the conclusion that there 

 is need of learning these trite truths. In these cir 

 cumstances the effort to bring the new tendencies to 

 a standstill is always futile and generally mischiev 

 ous; but it is possible somewhat to develop them 

 aright. Law can to a degree guide, protect and 

 control industrial development, but it can never 

 cause it, or play more than a subordinate part in 

 its healthy development unfortunately it is easy 

 enough by bad laws to bring it to an almost com 

 plete stop. 



In dealing with the big corporations which we 

 call trusts, we must resolutely purpose to proceed by 

 evolution and not revolution. We wish to face the 

 facts, declining to have our vision blinded either 

 by the folly of those who say there are no evils, or 

 by the more dangerous folly of those who either see, 

 or make believe that they see, nothing but evil in all 

 the existing system, and who if given their way 

 would destroy the evil by the simple process of 

 bringing ruin and disaster to the entire country. The 

 evils attendant upon over-capitalization alone are, in 

 my judgment, sufficient to warrant a far closer su 

 pervision and control than now exists over the great 

 corporations. Wherever a substantial monopoly can 

 be shown to exist we should certainly try our utmost 

 to devise an expedient by which it can be controlled. 

 Doubtless some of the evils existing in or because 



