And State Papers 539 



only exist if the conditions are such as to offer great 

 prizes as the rewards of success. 



The captains of industry who have driven the 

 railway systems across this continent, who have 

 built up our commerce, who have developed our man- 

 ufactures, have on the whole done great good to 

 our people. Without them the material develop- 

 ment of which we are so justly proud could never 

 have taken place. Moreover, we should recognize 

 the immense importance to this material develop- 

 ment of leaving as unhampered as is compatible with 

 the public good the strong and forceful men upon 

 whom the success of business operations inevitably 

 rests. The slightest study of business conditions 

 will satisfy any one capable of forming a judgment 

 that the personal equation is the most important fac- 

 tor in a business operation ; that the business ability 

 of the man at the head of any business concern, big 

 or little, is usually the factor which fixes the gulf 

 between striking success and hopeless failure. 



An additional reason for caution in dealing with 

 corporations is to be found in the international com- 

 mercial conditions of to-day. The same business 

 conditions which have produced the great aggrega- 

 tions of corporate and individual wealth have made 

 them very potent factors in international commer- 

 cial competition. Business concerns which have the 

 largest means at their disposal and are managed by 

 the ablest men are naturally those which take the lead 

 in the strife for commercial supremacy among the 

 nations of the world. America has only just be- 



