Taft was a member of my cabinet; at the time he never protested against,
and as far as I knew approved of my action in this case, as in the
Harvester Trust case, and all similar cases.]
The suit against the Steel Trust by the Government has brought vividly
before our people the need of reducing to order our chaotic Government
policy as regards business. As President, in Messages to Congress I
repeatedly called the attention of that body and of the public to the
inadequacy of the Anti-Trust Law by itself to meet business conditions
and secure justice to the people, and to the further fact that it might,
if left unsupplemented by additional legislation, work mischief, with no
compensating advantage; and I urged as strongly as I knew how that
the policy followed with relation to railways in connection with the
Inter-State Commerce Law should be followed by the National Government
as regards all great business concerns; and therefore that, as a
first step, the powers of the Bureau of Corporations should be greatly
enlarged, or else that there should be created a Governmental board or
commission, with powers somewhat similar to those of the Inter-State
Commerce Commission, but covering the whole field of inter-State
business, exclusive of transportation (which should, by law, be kept
wholly separate from ordinary industrial business, all common ownership
of the industry and the railway being forbidden).
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