CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



ful representations as to the value of the prop- 

 erty in which the capital is to be invested. Cor- 

 porations engaged in interstate commerce should 

 be regulated if they are found to exercise a li- 

 cense working to the public injury. It should 

 be as much the aim of those who seek for social 

 betterment to rid the business world of crimes 

 of cunning as to rid the entire body politic of 

 crimes of violence. Great corporations exist only 

 because they are created and safeguarded by our 

 institutions; and it is therefore our right and our 

 duty to see that they work in harmony with 

 these institutions. 



The first essential in determining how to deal 

 with the great industrial combinations is knowl- 

 edge of the facts publicity. In the interest of 

 the public, the Government should have the right 

 to inspect and examine the workings of the 

 great corporations engaged in interstate busi- 

 ness. Publicity is the only sure remedy which 

 we can now invoke. What further remedies are 

 needed in the way of governmental regulation, 

 or taxation, can only be determined after pub- 

 licity has been obtained, by process of law, and 

 in the course of administration, i'he first requi- 

 site is knowledge, full and complete knowledge 

 which may be made public to the world. 



Artificial bodies, such as corporations and joint- 

 stock or other associations, depending upon any 

 statutory law for their existence or privileges, 

 should be subject to proper governmental super- 

 vision, and full and accurate information as to 

 their operations should be made public regularly 

 at reasonable intervals. 



The large corporations, commonly called 

 trusts, though organized in one State, always do 

 business in many States, often doing very little 

 business in the State where they are incorpo- 

 rated. There is utter lack of uniformity in the 

 State laws about them; and as no State has any 

 exclusive interest in or power over their acts, 

 it has in practise proved impossible to get ade- 

 quate regulation through State action. There- 

 fore, in the interest of the whole people, the na- 

 tion should, without interfering with the power 

 of the States in the matter itself, also assume 

 power of supervision and regulation over all cor- 

 porations doing an interstate business. This is 

 especially true where the corporation derives a 

 portion of its wealth from the existence of some 

 monopolistic element or tendency in its business. 

 There would be no hardship in such supervision; 

 banks are subject to it, and in their case it is now 

 accepted as a simple matter of course. Indeed, 

 it is probable that supervision of corporations 

 by the National Government need not go so far 

 as is now the case with the supervision exercised 

 over them by so conservative a State as Massa- 

 chusetts, in order to produce excellent results. 



When the Constitution was adopted, at the 

 end of the eighteenth century, no human wisdom 

 could foretell the sweeping changes, alike in in- 

 dustrial and political conditions, which Avere to 

 take place by the beginning of the twentieth cen- 

 tury. At that time it was accepted as a matter 

 of course that the several States were the proper 

 authorities to regulate, so far as was then neces- 

 sary, the comparatively insignificant and strictly 

 localized corporate bodies of the day. The condi- 

 tions are now wholly different and wholly differ- 

 ent action is called for. I believe that a law 

 can be framed which will enable the National 

 Government to exercise control along the lines 

 above indicated; profiting by the experience 

 gained through the passage and administration 

 of the interstate commerce act. If, however, the 

 judgment of the Congress is that it lacks the con- 



stitutional power to pass such an act, then a 

 constitutional amendment should be submitted 

 to confer the power. 



There should be created a Cabinet officer, ta 

 be known as Secretary of Commerce and Indus- 

 tries, as provided in the bill introduced at the 

 last session of the Congress. It should be his 

 province to deal with commerce in its broad- 

 est sense; including among many other things 

 whatever concerns labor and all matters affect- 

 ing the great business corporations and our mer- 

 chant marine. 



The course proposed is one phase of what 

 should be a comprehensive and far-reaching 

 scheme of constructive statesmanship for the 

 purpose of broadening our markets, securing our 

 business interests on a safe basis, and making 

 firm our new position in the international indus- 

 trial world; while scrupulously safeguarding the 

 rights of wage-worker and capitalist, of investor 

 and private citizen, so as to secure equity as be- 

 tween man and man in this republic. 



With the sole exception of the farming inter- 

 est, no one matter is of such vital moment to- 

 cur whole people as the welfare of the wage-work- 

 ers. If the farmer and the wage-worker are well 

 off, it is absolutely certain that all others will 

 be well off, too. It is therefore a matter for 

 hearty congratulation that on the whole wages 

 are higher to-day in the United States than ever 

 before in our history, and far higher than in any 

 other country. The standard of living is also 

 higher than ever before. Every effort of legis- 

 lator and administrator should be bent to secure 

 the permanency of this condition .of things and 

 its improvement wherever possible. Not only 

 must our labor be protected by the tariff, but it 

 should also be protected so far as it is possible 

 from the presence in this country of any labor- 

 ers brought over by contract, or of those who, 

 coming freely, yet represent a standard of living 

 so depressed that they can undersell our men in 

 the labor market and drag them to a lower level. 

 I regard it as necessary, with this end in view, to 

 reenact immediately the law excluding Chinese 

 laborers and to strengthen it wherever necessary 

 in order to make its enforcement entirely effective. 



The National Government should demand the 

 highest quality of service from its employees ; 

 and in return it should be a good employer. If 

 possible legislation should be passed, in connec- 

 tion with the interstate commerce law. which 

 will render effective the efforts of different States 

 to do away with the competition of convict con- 

 tract labor in the open labor market. So far as 

 practicable under the conditions of Government 

 work, provision should be made to render the en- 

 forcement of the eight-hour law easy and certain. 

 In all, industries carried on directly or indirectly 

 for the United States Government women and 

 children should be protected from excessive hours 

 of labor, from night work, and from work under 

 unsanitary conditions. The Government should 

 provide in its contracts that all work should be 

 done under " fair " conditions, and in addition to 

 setting a high standard should uphold it by 

 proper inspection, extending if necessary to the 

 subcontractors. The Government should forbid 

 all night work for women and children, as well 

 as excessive overtime. For the District of Co- 

 lumbia a good factory law should be passed ; 

 and, as a powerful indirect aid to such laws, pro- 

 vi-i<>n should be made to turn the inhabited 

 alleys, the existence of which is a reproach to 

 our capital city, into minor streets, where the 

 inhabitants can live under conditions favorable 

 to health and morals. 



