So far he has pointed out no definite path along which investigation should proceed. He has, indeed, spoken of "governmental control," and even of an amendment to the Constitution; but what sort of control and what sort of amendment he does not specify. We have not much faith in either remedy. No scheme of "governmental control" has yet been proposed that would not do far more harm than good; while as for amending the Constitution, I have on a previous page shown the difficulty of the process.

Still clinging to what will prove a counsel of pure perfection, very difficult to realize in practice, Mr. Roosevelt declares that his aim is to destroy the evils of the combines. But he is profoundly impressed with the conviction that the industrial efficiency of the mammoth corporation is the foundation-stone of the present commercial power of the United States, and he maintains without hesitation that if America cannot will refuse to be hurried into any unwise or precipitate movement by any clamour, whether historical or demagogic; but, on the other hand, a character that will refuse to be frightened from a movement he thinks right to undertake by any pressure, and still less by any threat, expressed or implied. Mr. Knox has shown that much can be done along the lines of supervision and regulation of great industrial combinations; but, if we recklessly try, without proper thought and caution, to do much, we shall either do nothing or else work ruin that would be felt most acutely by those citizens who are most helpless. It is no easy task to deal with great industrial tendencies. By dealing with them in a spirit of presumptuous and rash folly, and, above all, in a spirit of envy, hatred, and malice, we should invite disaster so widespread that the country would rock to its foundations. Special legislation, municipal, State, and national, is needed, but, beyond all, we need an honest and fearless administration of the laws on the Statute books, made in the interest neither of rich nor poor, but in the interest of exact and equal justice to all alike."

This latter is a mere piece of rhetoric, seeing that the Anti-Trust law has been pronounced by the Supreme Court powerless to affect the Trusts. In fact, the whole utterance carefully avoids going to the root of the evil or of giving fright or offence to the Trust politicians.

succeed in attacking the evils without impairing the advantages of the Trust system, she had better bear the former than sacrifice the latter.

"It is a great deal better that some people should prosper too much than that no one should prosper enough, so that the man who advocates destroying Trusts by measures that would paralyze the industries of the country is at best a quack, and at worst an enemy of the Republic."

Again he says

"The nation must assume the power to control by legislation. The immediate need in dealing with Trusts is to place them under the real, not nominal, control of some sovereign, to which, as its creatures, Trusts still owe allegiance, and in whose courts the sovereign's orders may with certainty be enforced. This is not the case with the ordinary so-called Trust of to-day, for the Trust is a large State corporation, generally doing business in other States also, and often with a tendency to monopoly. Some governmental sovereign must be given full power over these artificial and very powerful corporate beings. In my judgment the sovereign must be the National Government. When it is given full power, that power can be used to control any evil influence, but that power should be exercised with moderation and self-restraint."

Now let us enumerate the certain remedies, and in doing so we may perceive some of the difficulties which cause the President embarrassment in his policy of extirpating the evils of the Trusts without injury to their industrial efficiency.

These remedies are three in number

1. Lowering the tariff on goods hitherto protected for the Trust.

2. Equality of railway rates to all shippers, large or small.

3. Full publicity relating to the capital and operations of the Trusts.

The reduction of the tariff is the only method which would largely protect the community from the practice of such abuses as have occurred and from the possibility of worse. But the President has so far shrunk from laying sacrilegious hands upon McKinleyism, which has been the Ark of the Covenant for the Republican party.1

Yet, Mr. Havemeyer, the "Sugar King," has called the tariff "the mother of Trusts," and has admitted, if the duties were remitted in the case of any articles the production and distribution of which were known to be in the hands of a monopoly, the abuses we now hear so much of would be very greatly curtailed, if not for a time absolutely abolished.

In 1901 Mr. Babcock, a Republican Congressman, gave notice of a motion for placing steel on the free list. He and his friends had no difficulty in proving that when a "struggling industry" is at last capable of

1 Mr. Roosevelt has since denounced the proposition to remedy the Trust evils by changes in the tariff. He declared that the real evils connected with the Trusts could not be remedied by any change in the tariff laws. He pointed out that the products of many Trusts were unprotected, and would be entirely unaffected or at the most only slightly affected by the change. In this connection the President especially mentioned the Standard Oil Corporation and the corporations controlling the anthracite output. Some corporations, he said, did well, others did ill. The Trusts could be injured by depriving them of the benefits of a protective tariff, but only at the cost of damaging all their small competitors and all paid workers concerned.

The necessary supervision and control in which President Roosevelt firmly believed as the only method of eliminating the real evils of Trusts would have to come through wisely and cautiously framed legislation. He was confident that in this instance there were the best reasons for the amendment of the Constitution, but at the same time he believed that without this amendment a good deal could be done by the existing law. All power should be used with wisdom and self-restraint, and all men, rich and poor, should obey the laws alike, and receive their protection alike.

capitalizing itself at eleven hundred millions of dollars, it may be reasonably left by a paternal Government to take care of itself.

The tariff laws, then, are the bulwark of the oppressive Trusts, and, in the language of the Democratic exAttorney-General, "tariff reform must be coincident with Anti-Trust legislation."

Now let us take the second point. Many think the only real solution of the Trust question is Government control of the railways, because the fact is, the railway system of America has passed into the control of a few persons, and these persons must inevitably be brought into relationship with the heads of the Trusts, and so establish discrimination.

The Trust would still be comparatively harmless, so far as its ramifications over a wide extent of territory are concerned, were it not for the aid and abetment of the railways. The Interstate Commerce Commission in its last report declares

"There is probably no one thing to-day which does so much to force out the small operator and to build up those Trusts and monopolies against which law and public opinion alike beat in vain as discrimination in freight rates. This problem is so serious that it will soon attract an attention that has hitherto never been given it."

By reason of their control of enormous traffic, the Trusts are able to dictate to the railways the terms upon which they will purchase transportation.

The railroad and the Trusts between them employ one-fourth of the non-agricultural labour of America. The political danger of this is patent, especially when it is borne in mind that only a fraction of these workers are members of a trade union.

CHAPTER XII

THE NEW IMMIGRATION

AMERICA has always been crying out for people. Her appeal has met with a hearty response, and the Old World has poured out its teeming thousands of souls to fill up the waste places of the Republic and contribute an unwonted squalor to its cities.

But the hospitality of America has been grossly abused; the demand lately has become general for the restriction of immigration. The recent exploits of the anarchists have accelerated the movement. "We shall soon find," exclaims the Commissioner of Immigration at New York, "that this country is the harbouringplace for the malcontents, criminals, and illiterates of the world."1

1 The Shattuck Bill, which will receive the attention of the Senate this year, aims at correcting some of the evils connected with immigration. Amongst its provisions is one dealing with the immigration of illiterates. All immigrants over fifteen years of age must be able to read the American language "or some other. For testing purposes the inspection officers are to be furnished with copies of the Constitution of the United States, printed on uniform pasteboard slips, each containing not less than twenty, and not more than twenty-five words of the said Constitution, printed in the various languages of the immigrants in double small pica type. Each immigrant may designate the language in which he prefers the test shall be made, and shall be required to read the words printed on a slip in such language. No two immigrants listed on the same manifest shall be tested with the same slip."