And State Papers 611 



country has won in the leadership of the interna- 

 tional industrial world, not to strike down wealth 

 with the result of closing factories and mines, of 

 turning the wage-worker idle in the streets and leav- 

 ing the farmer without a market for what he grows. 

 Insistence upon the impossible means delay in achiev- 

 ing the possible, exactly as, on the other hand, the 

 stubborn defence alike of what is good and what 

 is bad in the existing system, the resolute effort to 

 obstruct any attempt at betterment, betrays blindness 

 to the historic truth that wise evolution is the sure 

 safeguard against revolution. 



No more important subject can come before the 

 Congress than this of the regulation of interstate 

 business. This country can not afford to sit supine 

 on the plea that under our peculiar system of gov- 

 ernment we are helpless in the presence of the new 

 conditions, and unable to grapple with them or to 

 cut out whatever of evil has arisen in connection 

 with them. The power of the Congress to regulate 

 interstate commerce is an absolute and unqualified 

 grant, and without limitations other than those pre- 

 scribed by the Constitution. The Congress has con- 

 stituted authority to make all laws necessary and 

 proper for executing this power, and I am satisfied 

 that this power has not been exhausted by any legis- 

 lation now on the statute books. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that evils restrictive of commercial freedom 

 and entailing restraint upon national commerce fall 

 within the regulative power of the Congress, and 

 that a wise and reasonable law would be a necessary 



