A GOOD RECORD,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1907, Page 12

A GOOD RECORD,

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. TWO YEARS OF HIS ADMINISTRATION. Two years have now passed since his choice as President commissioned Theodore Roosevelt to "do things" for the American, people. What things Has- ho done? And how well or ill has ho done them? These are the questions which Mr Charles J. Bonaparte, AttorneyGeneral of the United States, asks m an American magazine,, and lie- answers them as follows : The consent, we may almost say tho instinct, of mankind has ever attached peculiar honour for a ruler to the title of "Peace-maker;" no designation has been more coveted by chieftains who longed to live after death in the memory of men, "pacificus" was the 'legend on coiii or arch or statue which each holder of imperial sway saw most gladly coupled with his name. This title has been, conferred on President Roossvelt, not by himself nor by any flattei'er, official or private, but by judges no less competent than impartial, foreigners to him and to us,. and sustained in' their verdict by the assent of the civilised, world. The first "thing,"* or at least,' the first big "thing," he "did"- after* his inauguration was to run the risk of rebuff and failure and consequent blame, to forget the precepts and the precedents of a policy which- would shut out our country from international fellowship with nineteen-twenticths of the human race, and to employ all the legitimate influence of a great nation — a nation too strong to be flouted, and in this caiG tpo.- clearly disinterested' to be suspeGted of guile — to restore the incalculable blessing of peace to Russia and Japan and tho lands which, werothoir battlefield. Beside this' great achievement, his sharo in promoting the peace of Central America, jn staying civil strife in Cuba, and discouraging rebellion in Santo • Domingo,, seem trifles ; but these trifles have served to spare humanity no little bloodshed and misery, and to earn for his country and himself no little credit and respect. AT HOAiE. To judge fairly the, "things" President Roosevelt has "done," we must have definite ideas as to -what "things" the' American people wished and chosa him to" "do.", We were troubled then, as we are still, by evils incidental to prodigious National prosperity, and. as a result of .this prosperity, phenomenally rapid increase in National and individual wealthy The immense masses of capita) controlled by "some nlen- or small groups of men enabled them, through the facilities for corporate organisation afforded by our laws and the facilities for personal intercourse afforded by longdistance telephones, wireless telegraphy, ocean cables, and other fruits of modern, enlightenment, to form aggregations of productive wealth so vastla3 to threaten tho commercial liberties of our people. Directly, these combinations operated to destroy fair .and healthy, by fostering unfair and unhealthy competition ; indirectly, they tended to debauch our politics, our press," the management of our corporations, our State and municipal authorities, and even our courts of justice. Enlightened . public opinion had slowly, and, on the whole, reluctantly i reached thb conclusions that these evils could not cure themselves (as many had hoped and said they would), ■ that 1 o general and permanent cure could be reasonably expected from the States, and that a remedy ought to bo sought in vigorous, even, if need there were, in .dra^tic^ctio'n on, the part of (A t)ie JiaJ liorial Government " ' ' r '' ><Jlu i•' TWO POLICIES. To deal .with this situation, two,n-c-ie or less definite policies ' of action and one of inaction competed, and n.ay re said still to compete, for popular ap. proval. The men who made up the things to be reformed wore clear tba,t no reform was needed. They said, and say yet (probably they believed, and perhaps they believe even yet), that without such "and their incidents, the transaction of business • on 'the scale of these .days would bo impossible and prosperity would disappear. On the other hand, certain speakers and writers advocated, and certain politicians professed to advocate, some avowedly, some with a large measure of self-deception as to their own meaning, and all with greater or less consistency and candour, the , destruction, more or less rapid and complete, of the , prosperity which had, incidentally and indirectly but undoubt- I odly, created or fostered the conditions to be cured. To effoct.this it was proposed, on the one hand, to unsettle practically all existing business relations in the country by a promise of sudden and sweeping but vaguely stated changes in the Lariff ; and, on the other, to drive | capital out. of the country or into hiding by socialistic and , confiscatory legislation. . ' Our Presidont had expressed himself often and emphatically in disapproval of both of these policies : ho could not be 'made to see that our country mu&t go to Mr. Mantalini's "demnition bowwows" unless, to uso an illustration furaished by facts, a monster corporation or trust was allowed 'to pay only six cents on the hundred pounds > for its freight over ji-ailways it controlled when its humbler rivals had to pay eighteen cents ; but neither could he see the good senso and good morals of a policy which, in last resort, would make everybody in Hie country, poor because a few people in it were too ri,ch for its good and their own, which would kill the^ goose that laid the golden eggs, not, as in the fable, to seek for them in her body, but to prevent her laying too ninny of them in a 'few favoured nests. He believed that tho nation could and should regulate and control its productive wealth without destroying this wealth or making it unproductive ; and, for his part, he was willing to try to do this; tho people believed, as ha did, tliat tho thing could bs done ; the people also believed that ho was the man to do it ; and, by its votes, the people' gave him the job. FAIR, COMPETITION. Tho present Administration has sought to make competition fair and healthful, first, by trying, so far as its resources might permit," to enforce rigidly and inipartially ths laws which forbid and punish harmful combinations in restraint of trade ; secondly, by obtaining aud making effective, so far as it could, legislation to prevent any form of discrimination by any kind of 'common carrier or other public agency for transportation. In both iiclds of action it has done much hard work ; and in both, but particularly in the second, it has accomplished results at least justifying their cost. In large measuro "rebates" and their like now belong to' the past, and discrimination, if not unknown, has become furtive and covert. Moreover, several of the trusts have been dissolved, in so far at least as agreements or decrees of courts of equity can effect their dissolution, and even those among them once inclined to say with Tweed : "Well ! what are you going to do .about it?" have been taught the unwisdom of open' defiance to thn law. FOR THE COMMON GOOD. It. liar, been and is tho aim of this Administration, an aim pursued with unswerving fidelity during the past two years, to show all Americans, whether rich or poor, and of whatever class or condition in life, that the laws made for their common cood demand the prompt

and unquestioning obedience of all alike* These laws; like I, all things human, may be faulty; if they are, it is tho duty, no less than the right, of a good citizen to do what, in him lies to mako them all that they should be for tho general good. L'u{, such as they are, and whatever his judgment' of their merits, he' deserves the name of al,a 1 , good citizen only if be respects and not if heeludes thsnj. Hecause, and in so far as, they believe this, and do as they believe, Americans have a government of laws, not of men ; and most of all because it has steadfastly sought to foster such belief and assure such obedience, the Federal Administration of the past two years at home claims to have "done things" worthy to be praised for tha doing, to havo merited the people's trust and deserved well of the country.