Presidential Addresses 



through administration, has been to do square and 

 equal justice between man and man; to try to give 

 every man a fair chance, to try to secure good treat 

 ment for him, if he deserves it, be he rich or poor, 

 and to try to see that he does not wrong his fellow. 

 After all, that is about what must be the essence of 

 legislation, if it is to be really good legislation. 

 Take such a matter as these so-called anti-trust laws 

 I always hate to have them called anti-trust laws 

 or anti-corporation laws because they are not de 

 signed to hurt any corporation, they are simply de 

 signed for such regulations and control as will pre 

 vent the doing of ill. Take the anti-rebate law 

 passed by the last Congress. It was merely designed 

 to make effective previous legislation, to prevent 

 any discrimination by any railroad in favor of or 

 against any particular shipper not trying to favor 

 the big shipper or the little shipper; only trying 

 to secure a fair deal for each, get fair play for 

 each, so that each man shall have the chance to 

 which he is entitled. That is not a bill aimed at the 

 railroads, it is only aimed at any railroad that does 

 anything wrong, in the same way that it is aimed 

 at a shipper that does anything wrong no more 

 against the big shipper than the little shipper. It 

 is meant to do square justice to each man, big or 

 little, and to ensure, as far as by legislation we can 

 secure, that he will do fair justice in return. 



Take the report of the Anthracite Coal Strike 

 Commission and the spirit in which that commis 

 sion went to work. They were not trying to decide 



