The Anti-Trust Law
Performed by William H. Taft
Recorded October 1, 1912
When the case of our party
is stated for national consideration, it seems strange
why there should be any doubt of the conclusion that
the electorate will reach in respect to the continuance
of the administration in power in Washington. Four
years ago we made many promises, all of which we have
substantially kept, and the issues which are presented
today are issues upon which it would seem that the
voters of this country have not changed their minds,
and opt not to change them. In the first place, the
happiness of the people is more deeply affected by
the prosperity and good business that prevail than
by any other one condition. A national government
cannot create good times; it cannot make the rain
to fall, the sun to shine, or the crops to grow. But
it can, by pursuing a meddlesome policy attempting
to change economic condition and frightening the investment
of capital, prevent a prosperity and revival of business
which otherwise might have taken place. And in view
of the experience of the past, in which we have seen
efforts to bring about a change in monetary or economic
policies halt enterprise, paralyze investments, and
throw out of employment hundreds of thousands of working
men, the virtue of having taken no step to interfere
with the coming of prosperity and the comfort of the
people is one that ought highly to commend an administration
and the party responsible for it as worthy of further
continuance in power. It has been said against this
administration that in the prosecution of the trust
law it has needlessly interfered with business and
has paralyzed investment. The answer to the charge
is first, that as long as the statute is upon the
statute book, its the sworn duty of the President
and his assistant to see that the law is executed,
and second, that as he has done so and as prosperity
is here and is budding forth on every side in full
view of the people of the country, the charge that
the administration has interfered with business or
the revival of prosperity is refuted. On the contrary,
the inference to be drawn is that the country has
squared itself to the law as it appears into its enforcement,
and its coming to know that it is possible to
do all business within the law, and that the performance
of the promise in respect to the law which has been
made by successive party platforms for more than a
decade, deserves approval rather than criticism. That
there may be supplementary legislation of a character
to make easier of the performance of the requirements
of the law, I firmly believe. I have made my recommendations
as to Federal incorporation as one means of helping
along with the greatest corporations that need the
charter of the national government properly to perform
their function without needless interference of the
state, and with a corresponding opportunity to the
national government, closely to supervise the operations
of these greatest corporations and thus to keep them
within the law.