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Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

"President Wilson's Addresses"

You know not only the innocent
and right things that your corporations are doing, but you know the
other things, too. Knowing how they are done, you can be expert advisors
as to how the wrong things can be prevented. If, therefore, this thing
is handled ignorantly, there is nobody to blame but yourselves." If we
on the outside cannot understand the thing and cannot get advice from
the inside, then we will have to do it with the flat hand and not with
the touch of skill and discrimination. Isn't that true? Men on the
inside of business know how business is conducted and they cannot
complain if men on the outside make mistakes about business if they do
not come from the inside and give the kind of advice which is necessary.
The trouble has been that when they came in the past--for I think the
thing is changing very rapidly--they came with all their bristles out;
they came on the defensive; they came to see, not what they could
accomplish, but what they could prevent. They did not come to guide;
they came to block. That is of no use whatever to the general body
politic. What has got to pervade us like a great motive power is that we
cannot, and must not, separate our interests from one another, but must
pool our interests.


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