Section 3 of the same Article of the Constitution, in enumerating the

duties of the President, says: “That he shall take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed.”

As at the time of his inauguration as President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt solemnly swore that he would faithfully execute its laws, all of you, I know, will agree with me when I assert that he was bound to loyally and fearlessly keep that oath.

As an honest man, he has only tried to do his duty. He has attacked the law-breaking corporations, and those in control who have amassed large fortunes out of them dishonestly, and these only. Not to have prosecuted and to have let these corporations, and their officers, go on, unchecked and unpunished, would have been to violate his oath of office and to neglect the duty imposed upon him.

It would certainly make a farce of this great republic, and cast a stigma upon our integrity, if the laws of the land were not enforced against the rich and the poor alike! No such reflection as that upon our national honor will ever be tolerated by Theodore Roosevelt! He has been ready at all times to uphold the national honor. It has been well said that the honor of the nation is the soul of the nation.

President Roosevelt’s resolute and unyielding stand for the rights of the people, against the powerful corporate wrongdoers who had thrived so long upon their secret misdeeds, has commanded the attention and admiration of the world. His excess of earnestness and denunciation at times, we can forgive.

Victor Hugo, in speaking of one of the world’s greatest “Immortals,” truly said: “When a man is a glory in the face of his nation, that nation which does not perceive the fact astounds the human race around.”

President Roosevelt has proved himself a successful crusader against successful corporate dishonesty, involving violations of law; and it is doubtful, as he says, whether his policies have had any material influence in bringing about the severe depression and banking crisis of this memorable year. But whether they have or not, he declares, with the courage of his convictions, that during the remainder of his term he will not swerve from these policies, but persevere in them unflinchingly. Yet all that his administration has done has been to unearth the wrongdoing. It is impossible to cut out a cancer without making the patient feel temporarily worse than before.

It is a mistake, or a slander, to say that Theodore Roosevelt has made war against capital. He is only opposed to dishonest corporate methods, and dishonestly acquired wealth. He respects the possessors of honorably acquired and honestly used fortunes, and would protect their property interests in every way possible, and guard them against injustice, and be resolute in defending their rights; for their success leads to the inference that they are good citizens. But he will assuredly stand against crimes of unscrupulous cunning in the management of railway, industrial or financial corporations as resolutely as he would against crimes of brutal violence, and equally punish the rich man and the poor man, for crime is crime whether committed by a plutocracy or capitalist, a poor wage earner, or a mob. These are his avowed principles and policies.

He would regard a man who builds a railway where it is needed, and operates it fairly and honestly, as a public benefactor; but if that man manipulated the stock and bonds of that railway so as to swindle the stockholders or bondholders, or the public, or gave rebates or otherwise favored one shipper over another, he would regard that man as an enemy of our institutions who should be punished for his wrongdoing. All this goes to answer the question: Is President Roosevelt’s policy towards capital sound? I say that it is, when rightly understood!

Furthermore, the regulation of corporations by the Federal Government should be made absolute, and taken away from the States, where they do an Interstate business, like the railways and express companies. This would be better for the corporations, themselves, as well as the people than present conditions. They should be placed under National control, just as the National Banks are.

This central undivided control would do away with the confusion of Federal and State authority now existing. Moreover, I would favor the extension of this Federal control to all interstate corporations, and it will come in time. Meanwhile President Roosevelt is paving the way for it, and to him let us give all honor for his long step in the right direction.

But, now that Mr. Roosevelt has substantially achieved his purpose, he can well afford to rest satisfied that his work will continue to bear good fruit without any further public addresses on the subject.

The people are already familiar with his views, and their continued reiteration by him in his speeches, especially during this period of financial and industrial distrust, depression and unsettlement, would tend to inspire fresh uneasiness as to the situation and the value of corporate stocks and bonds. It would do this, owing to the extreme nervousness and timidity of capital that prevails.

It is this abnormally sensitive and apprehensive condition of public feeling that led to the recent senseless run upon certain New York trust companies, and in a minor degree upon banks and savings banks, and that caused very many of the depositors, after withdrawing their money, to hoard it in safe deposit vaults, and various less safe receptacles, instead of depositing it in other institutions.

Their hoarding it, naturally made conditions all the worse, through very seriously increasing the stringency of the money market. So great became the scarcity of loanable funds that from the 23d to the 31st of October, call loans were made daily on the New York Stock Exchange at rates averaging 50 per cent per annum, with some ranging from 75 to 100 per cent. Such hoarding, on a large scale, is fraught with great danger, as it involves a sudden contraction of the circulation and drain upon bank reserves. In this instance it caused renewed panic and fresh breaks in stocks, and it alone compelled the New York Bank Clearing House members to vote unanimously to issue Clearing House Certificates—nothing else would have offset the run on deposit institutions.

It would be very far from President Roosevelt’s wish to say or do anything that would cause people to hoard money instead of employing it in customary channels; for hoarding is a public injury and contrary to good citizenship. Furthermore, it is entirely un-American. But the public mind has been wrought up to such a pitch of distrust and semi-hysteria, through the disclosures of corporate dishonesty, and other disturbing causes, that a false, or at least exaggerated, impression exists among many that all corporations are, or may be, in the same boat. This want of confidence in the situation is very largely what has caused the heavy and prolonged liquidation in stocks, and led to the bank and trust company runs and great monetary and industrial disturbance we have witnessed in this great and far-reaching crisis.

Mr. Roosevelt will, therefore, see, now that he is becoming more and more cognizant of the situation, that what the public, and particularly the investing class, needs in this period of stress and storm and anxiety, is to be calmed and reassured and made aware that there is a silver lining to the cloud, and no good reason for their loss of confidence; for the country is still as great and grand, and prolific in its resources, as ever, with its future no less promising and magnificent than it was before this crisis darkened the sky.

It is known that he takes this view of the situation, and is earnestly co-operating with the Secretary of the Treasury to ease the money market and restore confidence.