arations of the party platform upon which I was elected
to office, if I did not make the maintenance and enforcement of those
reforms a most important feature of my administration. They were
directed to the suppression of the lawlessness and abuses of power of
the great combinations of capital invested in railroads and in
industrial enterprises carrying on interstate commerce. The steps which
my predecessor took and the legislation passed on his recommendation
have accomplished much, have caused a general halt in the vicious
policies which created popular alarm, and have brought about in the
business affected a much higher regard for existing law.

To render the reforms lasting, however, and to secure at the same time
freedom from alarm on the part of those pursuing proper and progressive
business methods, further legislative and executive action are needed.
Relief of the railroads from certain restrictions of the antitrust law
have been urged by my predecessor and will be urged by me. On the other
hand, the administration is pledged to legislation looking to a proper
federal supervision and restriction to prevent excessive issues of bonds
and stock by companies owning and operating interstate commerce
railroads.

Then, too, a reorganization of the Department of Justice, of the Bureau
of Corporations in the Department of Commerce and Labor, and of the
Interstate Commerce Commission, looking to effective cooperation of
these agencies, is needed to secure a more rapid and certain enforcement
of the laws affecting interstate railroads and industrial combinations.

I hope to be able to submit at the first regular session of the incoming
Congress, in December next, definite suggestions in respect to the
needed amendments to the antitrust and the interstate commerce law and
the changes required in the executive departments concerned in their
enforcement.

It is believed that with the changes to be recommended American business
can be assured of that measure of stability and certainty in respect to
those things that may be done and those that are prohibited which is
essential to the life and growth of all business. Such a plan must
include the right of the people to avail themselves of those methods of
combining capital and effort deemed necessary to reach the highest
degree of economic efficiency, at the same time differentiating between
combinations based upon legitimate economic reasons and those formed
with the intent