And State Papers 275 



amassed, not by injuring our people, but as an inci 

 dent to the conferring of great benefits upon the 

 community, and this no matter what may have been 

 the conscious purpose of those amassing them. 

 There is but the scantiest justification for most of 

 the outcry against the men of wealth as such; and 

 it ought to be unnecessary to state that any appeal 

 which directly or indirectly leads to suspicion and 

 hatred among ourselves, which tends to limit oppor 

 tunity, and therefore to shut the door of success 

 against poor men of talent, and, finally, which entails 

 the possibility of lawlessness and violence, is an at 

 tack upon the fundamental properties of American 

 citizenship. Our interests are at bottom common ; in 

 the long run we go up or go down together. Yet 

 more and more it is evident that the State, and if 

 necessary the Nation, has got to possess the right of 

 supervision and control as regards the great corpora 

 tions which are its creatures ; particularly as regards 

 the great business combinations which derive a por 

 tion of their importance from the existence of some 

 monopolistic tendency. The right should be ex 

 ercised with caution and self-restraint ; but it should 

 exist, so that it may be invoked if the need arises." 

 Last fall in speaking at Cincinnati I said : 

 "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 



