174 Presidential Addresses 



mental law. The rich man who does not see that 

 this is in his interest is indeed short-sighted. When 

 we make him obey the law we ensure for him the 

 absolute protection of the law. 



The savings banks show what can be done in the 

 way of genuinely beneficent work by large corpora 

 tions when intelligently administered and supervised. 

 They now hold over twenty-six hundred millions 

 of the people's money and pay annually about one 

 hundred millions of interest or profit to their depos 

 itors. There is no talk of danger from these cor 

 porations ; yet they possess great power, holding over 

 three times the amount of our present national debt, 

 more than all the currency, gold, silver, greenbacks, 

 etc., in circulation in the United States. The chief 

 reason for there being no talk of danger from them 

 is that they are on the whole faithfully administered 

 for the benefit of all, under wise laws which require 

 frequent and full publication of their condition, and 

 which prescribe certain needful regulations with 

 which they have to comply, while at the same time 

 giving full scope for the business enterprise of their 

 managers within these limits. 



Now of course savings banks are as highly special 

 ized a class of corporations as railroads, and we 

 can not force too far the analogy with other cor 

 porations; but there are certain conditions which I 

 think we can lay down as indispensable to the proper 

 treatment of all corporations which from their size 

 have become important factors in the social develop 

 ment of the community. 



