in mind that guilt is personal; if there is to be punishment let it fall
on the evil-doer, let us not condemn the instrument. We need power. Is
the steam engine too strong? Is electricity too swift? Can any
prosperity be too great? Can any instrument of commerce or industry ever
be too powerful to serve the public needs? What then of the anti-trust
laws? They are sound in theory. Their assemblances of wealth are broken
up because they were assembled for an unlawful purpose. It is the
purpose that is condemned. You men who represent our industries can see
that there is the same right to disperse unlawful assembling of wealth
or power that there is to disperse a mob that has met to lynch or riot.
But that principle does not denounce town-meetings or prayer-meetings.

We have established here a democracy on the principle that all men are
created equal. It is our endeavor to extend equal blessings to all. It
can be done approximately if we establish the correct standards. We are
coming to see that we are dependent upon commercial and industrial
prosperity, not only for the creation of wealth, but for the solving of
the great problem of the distribution of wealth. There is just one
condition on which men can secure employment and a living, nourishing,
profitable wages for whatever they contribute to the enterprise, be it
labor or capital, and that condition is that some one make a profit by
it. That is the sound basis for the distribution of wealth and the only
one. It cannot be done by law, it cannot be done by public ownership, it
cannot be done by socialism. When you deny the right to a profit you
deny the right of a reward to thrift and industry.

The scientists tell us that the same force that rounds the teardrop
moulds the earth. Physical laws have their analogy in social and
industrial life. The law that builds up the people is the law that
builds up industry. What price could the millions, who have found the