176 Presidential Addresses 



is made to follow a course which those who make 

 the appeal either do know, or ought to know, can 

 not be followed; and which, if followed, would 

 result in disaster to everybody. Loose talk about 

 destroying monopoly out of hand without a hint as to 

 how the monopoly should even be defined offers a 

 case in point. 



Nor can we afford to tolerate any proposal 

 which will strike at the so-called trusts only by 

 striking at the general well-being. We are now 

 enjoying a period of great prosperity. The pros 

 perity is generally diffused through all sections and 

 through all classes. Doubtless there are some in 

 dividuals who do not get enough of it, and there 

 are others who get too much. That is simply an 

 other way of saying that the wisdom of mankind 

 is finite ; and that even the best human system does 

 not work perfectly. You don't have to take my 

 word for that. Look back just nine years. In 1893 

 nobody was concerned in downing the trusts. Every 

 body was concerned in trying to get up himself. 

 The men who propose to get rid of the evils of 

 the trusts by measures which would do away with 

 the general well-being, advocate a policy which 

 would not only be a damage to the community as 

 a whole, but which would defeat its own professed 

 object. If we are forced to the alternative of choos 

 ing either a system under which most of us prosper 

 somewhat, though a few of us prosper too much, 

 or else a system under which no one prospers enough, 

 of course we will choose the former. If the policy 



