Gubernatorial Messages 781 



ing if it comes too fast, even when it is in the end 

 beneficial. Occasionally, moreover, the change is 

 positively deleterious, and very often, even when 

 it is on the whole beneficial, it has features which are 

 the reverse. In some cases, while recognizing the 

 evil, it is impossible with our present knowledge to 

 discover any remedy. In others, a remedy can be ap- 

 plied, but as yet only at a cost that would make it 

 worse than the trouble itself. In yet others it is pos- 

 sible, by acting with wisdom, coolness and fearless- 

 ness, to apply a remedy which will wholly or in 

 great part remove the evil while leaving the good be- 

 hind. We do not wish to discourage enterprise. We 

 do not desire to destroy corporations; we do desire 

 to put them fully at the service of the State and the 

 people. 



The machinery of modern business is so vast and 

 complicated that great caution must be exercised in 

 introducing radical changes for fear the unforeseen 

 effects may take the shape of widespread disaster. 

 Moreover, much that is complained about is not 

 really the abuse so much as the inevitable develop- 

 ment of our modern industrial life. We have moved 

 far away from the old simple days when each com- 

 munity transacted almost all its work for itself and 

 relied upon outsiders for but a fraction of the neces- 

 saries, and for not a very large portion even of the 

 luxuries, of life. Very many of the anti-trust laws 

 which have made their appearance on the statute 

 books of recent years have been almost or absolutely 

 ineffective because they have blinked the all-im- 



