

And State Papers 181 



tween the good and evil in them, and without even 

 any regard as to whether a necessary sequence of 

 the action would be the hurting of other interests. 

 The adoption of such a policy would mean tempo 

 rary damage to the trusts, because it would mean 

 temporary damage to all of our business interests; 

 but the effect would be only temporary, for exactly 

 as the damage affected all alike, good and bad, so 

 the reaction would affect all alike, good and bad. 

 The necessary supervision and control, in which I 

 firmly believe as the only method of eliminating the 

 real evils of the trusts, must come through wisely 

 and cautiously framed legislation, which shall aim 

 in the first place to give definite control to some 

 sovereign over the great corporations, and which 

 shall be followed, when once this power has been 

 conferred, by a system giving to the Government 

 the full knowledge which is the essential for satis 

 factory action. Then when this knowledge one of 

 the essential features of which is proper publicity 

 has been gained, what further steps of any kind are 

 necessary can be taken with the confidence born of 

 the possession of power to deal with the subject, 

 and of a thorough knowledge of what should and 

 can be done in the matter. 



We need additional power; and we need knowl 

 edge. Our Constitution was framed when the 

 economic conditions were so different that each 

 State could wisely be left to handle the corpora 

 tions within its limits as it sa.w fit. Nowadays all 

 the corporations which I am considering do what 



