It is absurd not to graduate the midshipmen as ensigns; to keep them for two years in such an anomalous position as at present the law requires is detrimental to them and to the service.

In the academy itself, every first classman should be required in turn to serve as petty officer and officer; his ability to discharge his duties as such should be a prerequisite to his going into the line, and his success in commanding…

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

You men of Chicago have made this city great, you men of Illinois have done your share, and more than your share, in making America great, because you neither preach nor practice such a doctrine.

If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a writer or a general, whether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure, he shows he…

We could have avoided all this suffering simply by shrinking from strife.

All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill.

We can not avoid the responsibilities that confront us in Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines.

These are the men who fear the strenuous life, who fear the only national life which is really worth leading.

The actual working of our laws has shown that the effort to prohibit all combination, good or bad, is noxious where it is not ineffective.

Combination of capital like combination of labor is a necessary element of our present industrial system.

It is unfortunate that our present laws should forbid all combinations, instead of sharply discriminating between those combinations which do good and those combinations which do evil.

Such a result in turn tends to throw the decent man and the wilful wrongdoer into close association, and in the end to drag down the former to the latter's level; for the man who becomes a lawbreaker in one way unhappily tends to lose all…

This means that the law as construed by the Supreme Court is such that the business of the country can not be conducted without breaking it.

In addition to these there is every reason why, when next our system of taxation is revised, the National Government should impose a graduated inheritance tax, and, if possible, a graduated income tax.

The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.

Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the State gives him.

But I feel that in the near future our national legislators should enact a law providing for a graduated inheritance tax by which a steadily increasing rate of duty should be put upon all moneys or other valuables coming by gift, bequest…

In any event, in my judgment the pro rata of the tax should increase very heavily with the increase of the amount left to any one individual after a certain point has been reached.

It is most desirable to encourage thrift and ambition, and a potent source of thrift and ambition is the desire on the part of the breadwinner to leave his children well off.

This object can be attained by making the tax very small on moderate amounts of property left; because the prime object should be to put a constantly increasing burden on the inheritance of those swollen fortunes which it is certainly of…

There can be no question of the ethical propriety of the Government thus determining the conditions upon which any gift or inheritance should be received.

The question is in its essence a question of the proper adjustment of burdens to benefits.

But whether it is absolutely impossible is another question; and if possible it is most certainly desirable.

The difficulty of amending the Constitution is so great that only real necessity can justify a resort thereto.