"Big Business"
ceeded with the prosecution of various large corporations which were charged with violation of the Sherman act. Among these were the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the Dupont de Nemours Powder Company of New Jersey, the American Sugar Refining Company of New Jersey and the American Tobacco Company of New Jersey. The purpose was of course not to destroy those corporations nor to deprive the business of the nation of the advantages which manifestly might be realized from the conduct of affairs upon so extensive a scale, but to curb and check the abuses to which they were subject and to demonstrate the amenability of the largest and richest corporation to the law equally with the humblest and poorest individual. It was an application of the original principles of the Republican party, the equality of rights and equality of responsibilities before the law. It served notice that just as the slave-holding oligarchy of the South was not permitted to dominate the country, so no oligarchy of capital would be permitted to exercise undue influence to control the government or to defy the law.
The principles successfully pursued during this administration thus comprised the “square deal” of equal industrial opportunities for all law-abiding men and corporations, and equal punishment for all violations of law; such governmental supervision and regulation of railroads and other public service corporations as would assure their impartial and efficient service to all; development of the internal waterways of the country to supplement the service of the railroads; promotion of agriculture by facilitating and encouraging the acquisition of homesteads; conservation of the
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