And State Papers 273 



corporation people, nor yet from the standpoint of 

 those who are fond of denying the existence of evils 

 in the trusts, or who apparently proceed upon the 

 assumption that if a corporation is large enough it 

 can do no wrong. 



I think I speak for the great majority of the 

 American people when I say that we are not in the 

 least against wealth as such, whether individual or 

 corporate ; that we merely desire to see any abuse of 

 corporate or combined wealth corrected and reme 

 died ; that we do not desire the abolition or destruc 

 tion of big corporations, but, on the contrary, rec 

 ognize them as being in many cases efficient econom 

 ic instruments, the results of an inevitable process 

 of economic evolution, and only desire to see them 

 regulated and controlled so far as may be necessary 

 to subserve the public good. We should be false to 

 the historic principles of our government if we dis 

 criminated, either by legislation or administration, 

 either for or against a man because of either his 

 wealth or his poverty. There is no proper place in 

 our society either for the rich man who uses the pow 

 er conferred by his riches to enable him to oppress 

 and wrong his neighbors, nor yet for the demagogic 

 agitator who, instead of attacking abuses as all abuses 

 should be attacked wherever found, attacks prop 

 erty, attacks prosperity, attacks men of wealth, as 

 such, whether they be good or bad, attacks corpora 

 tions whether they do well or ill, and seeks, in a 

 spirit of ignorant rancor, to overthrow the very 

 foundations upon which rests our national wellbeing. 



