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omic policy which will best accomplish such a result I leave 

 you to determine, urging you to deal with the question 

 solely on the basis of reason and experience. No system 

 or policy should be approved that cannot be reasonably 

 shown to be for the benefit of the people at large and within 

 the limits of our own country at least, where conditions of 

 life are practically identical. There should be a free field 

 and no favor. 



Trusts and combinations are against the public interest, 

 because competition is the necessary stimulus to improve- 

 ment and economy in production, and wealth accumulated 

 by a monopoly does not as a rule make the nation better 

 off. It is simply a process of taking the money out of the 

 pockets of one class of citizens and putting it into the 

 pockets of another class without rendering a fair equiva- 

 lent therefor. 



Where competition is free among a people, neither profits 

 of business nor wages of labor will, relatively, in the long 

 run, be unduly increased or diminished. Profits and wages 

 must vary in order that the requisite number of persons 

 may be employed in different industries. 



As in tlie physical world floods and droughts at times 

 alternately threaten destruction, while on the whole the 

 productiveness of the earth increases, so in the industrial 

 world, although in every department we have to meet dis- 

 astrous experiences, we know that the condition of mankind 

 has through the ages constantly improved. 



While we affirm this to be true, we are so constituted 

 that we can never view the present situation with unalloyed 

 satisfaction. Unfortunately, reasons always exist which 

 compel tlie thoughtful man to regard the tendency of his 

 times with anxiety. We are told that " Every rose must 



