782 Gubernatorial Messages 



portant fact that much of what they thought to do 

 away with was incidental to modern industrial con- 

 ditions, and could not be eliminated unless we were 

 willing to turn back the wheels of modern progress 

 by also eliminating the forces which had brought 

 about these industrial conditions. Not only trusts, 

 but the immense importance of machinery, the con- 

 gestion of city life, the capacity to make large for- 

 tunes by speculative enterprises, and many other 

 features of modern existence could be thoroughly 

 changed by doing away with steam and electricity; 

 but the most ardent denouncer of trusts would hesi- 

 tate to advocate so drastic a remedy. What remains 

 for us to do, as practical men, is to look the condi- 

 tions squarely in the face and not to permit the 

 emotional side of the question, which has its proper 

 place, to blind us to the fact that there are other 

 sides. We must set about finding out what the real 

 abuses are, with their causes, and to what extent 

 remedies can be applied. 



That abuses exist, and that they are of a very 

 grave character, it is worse than idle to deny. Just 

 so long as in the business world unscrupulous cun- 

 ning is allowed the free rein which, thanks to the 

 growth of humanity during the past centuries, we 

 now deny to unscrupulous physical force, then just 

 so long there will be a field for the best effort of 

 every honest social and civic reformer who is capa- 

 ble of feeling an impulse o>f generous indignation 

 and who is far-sighted enough to appreciate where 

 the real danger to the country lies. The effects are 



