In recent years we have established a
differentiation in the whole method of business regulation between the
industries which produce and distribute commodities on the one hand and
public utilities on the other. In the former, our laws insist upon
effective competition; in the latter, because we substantially confer a
monopoly by limiting competition, we must regulate their services and
rates. The rigid enforcement of the laws applicable to both groups is
the very base of equal opportunity and freedom from domination for all
our people, and it is just as essential for the stability and prosperity
of business itself as for the protection of the public at large. Such
regulation should be extended by the Federal Government within the
limitations of the Constitution and only when the individual States are
without power to protect their citizens through their own authority. On
the other hand, we should be fearless when the authority rests only in
the Federal Government.
COOPERATION BY THE GOVERNMENT
The larger purpose of our economic thought should be to establish more
firmly stability and security of business and employment and thereby
remove poverty still further from our borders. Our people have in recent
years developed a new-found capacity for cooperation among themselves to
effect high purposes in public welfare. It is an advance toward the
highest conception of self-government. Self-government does not and
should not imply the use of political agencies alone.
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