Speech 52
FEDERAL SUPERVISION OF RAILWAYS AS AN EXECUTIVE NOT A JUDICIAL FUNCTION
FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE, WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS., JUNE 22, 1905

I AM particularly glad to speak to an audience like this, because I do not know that I shall have the unqualified assent of everybody here.  If I address an audience merely of men of very small means or wage workers, then what I want to tell them, as the most important thing for them to learn, is to avoid an attitude of rancorous envy or hostility toward men of wealth, and above all to remember that the well being of our social structure rests upon obedience to the law, upon the immediate suppression of mob violence, mob rule, in any form.  There can be and must be no paltering with any manifestation of that spirit.  Any attempt to override the law by action of individuals or by the action of mobs, whether the attempt comes in connection with labor difficulties or in any other way, must in the interest of the Nation be met fearlessly at the earliest opportunity, and the lawlessness put down.

On the other side, just as we must never allow this Government to be changed into government by a mob, so we must never allow it to be changed into government by a plutocracy.  The growth of our modern industrialism has resulted in an altogether disproportionate reward to the man who goes into money making as his only career.  Two evil results follow.  One is the result to himself, for, unless he is a man of very strong character, there almost inevitably comes a certain arrogance, or at least a certain carelessness toward the rights of others.  The other result is to breed in the minds of poor people an attitude of sullen envy toward men of wealth, which is infinitely more damaging to the people who hold it than any action of the man of wealth could be.

There must be a closer supervision by the Government of great industrial combinations, for of course wealth at present finds its expression through these great industrial combinations.  I think it has been a mistake to act on the theory which has shaped most of our legislation, National and State, for the last thirty years, that it is possible to turn back the hands of the clock, to forbid combinations and to restore business to conditions which have absolutely passed away.  That can not be done.  What we can do is to exercise an efficient supervision over the combinations, so as to see as far as possible that they are used in the interest of and not against the interest of the general public.  I do not believe that such supervision can come effectively through the State, nor that it can effectively come through the municipality.  Ultimately in the great majority of cases to be effective it must be exercised by the National Government.  I trust that in the end means will be found by which the exercise of such control over all the great industrial corporations which are really engaged in and doing an interstate business will be lodged in the hands of the National Government.  As the first step to that I hope to see the passage of legislation which will give as an executive, not as a judicial function, to the National Government the supervision of the railroads of the United States which are engaged in interstate commerce, with the power, when a rate is complained of as improper and unjust, to examine that rate, and if the rate should be changed to change it to a given rate, and to have that given rate take practically immediate effect.  Now, I am perfectly well aware that there are objections to the proposed change, but in my judgment they are far outweighed by the objections attendant upon not making the change.  The fear expressed by excellent people, who no doubt feel it genuinely, that we could not get a commission who would fix all the rates of the railroads of the country, is to my mind much as if they should express fear that you could not get Supreme Court Justices who would be able to fix all the laws.  I expect that the commission will be able to pass upon a given rate brought before it, just as the Supreme Court passes upon a given question of law brought before it; and one will prove to be as feasible as the other has proved feasible.  That system should be, and, in my judgment will be introduced.  I believe it will work a measurable betterment for the public.  Listen to what I say — a measurable betterment for the public.  I do not believe that it will produce the millennium, or anything approaching it; and I am quite certain that some of its most ardent advocates will be disappointed with the results.  But I think measurable good will come.  It can only come if the officers intrusted with the administration of the law remember that it is exactly as much their duty to protect the railroad from the public as to protect the public from the railroad; to remember that when we say we want justice from the railroad, we must, if we are honest, add also a pledge to do justice to the railroad.