274 Presidential Addresses 



In consequence of the extraordinary industrial 

 changes of the last half century, and notably of the 

 last two or three decades, changes due mainly to the 

 rapidity and complexity of our industrial growth, 

 we are confronted with problems which in their 

 present shape were unknown to our forefathers. 

 Our great prosperity, with its accompanying con 

 centration of population and of wealth, its extreme 

 specialization of faculties, and its development of 

 giant industrial leaders, has brought much good and 

 some evil, and. it is as .foolish to ignore the good as 

 wilfully to blind ourselves to the evil. 



The evil has been partly the inevitable accompani 

 ment of the social changes, and where this is the 

 case it can be cured neither by law nor by the ad 

 ministration of the law, the only remedy lying in 

 the slow change of character and of economic en 

 vironment. But for a portion of the evil, at least, 

 we think that remedies can be found. We know 

 well the danger of false remedies, and we are against 

 all violent, radical, and unwise change. But we be 

 lieve that by proceeding slowly, yet resolutely, with 

 good sense and moderation, and also with a firm de 

 termination not to be swerved from our course 

 either by foolish clamor or by any base or sinister 

 influence, we can accomplish much for the better 

 ment of conditions. 



Nearly two years ago, speaking at the State Fair 

 in Minnesota, I said : 



"It is probably true that the large majority of the 

 fortunes that now exist in this country have been 



