Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-03-23
rHE SECURITY OF MANUFACTURES.

For the amount of important legislation, af
fcctng the judicial, commercial, and industrial
interests of the Commonwealth, which it has
Legislature will hold memorable place in our
State history Much of that legislation has
been of q wise and salutary character, and,
when its effects have been fully developed, will
rebound to the lasting credit of the party on
which its responsibility rests. 1t has initiated,
however, other assaults upon our old habits
and customs, which partake rather of the rash
ness of innovation, than of the wisdom of re-
FORM To this class of legislation belongs the
bill now pending, introduced by the Committee
on Manufactures, and proposing radical and vi
olent changes in the management of manufac-
turing corporations.
The design of the bill is stated, in the elab.
crate report which accompanies it, to be to pro.
vide new safeguards against the failure of cor
parations. To establish the necessity of legis-
lation, the committee avail themselves of the
painfully interesting fact, that when incorpora-
ted companies are overtaken by financial mis-
fortune, the effect is vastly more disastrous
than falls to the lot of individuals in similar UNI
dertakings and circumstances; and they as
sumo, for the cause, that the management and
control of corporations is, under our present
laws, conferred in the hands of few salaried
persons, who are often interested in concealing
the true condition of their affairs from the large
body of stockholders and the public.
To remedy the evil the bill provides, first
that the financial standing of corporations shall
be annually published in detail; second, that
after 1860 no person shall be Director, in
more than two manufacturing companies, or
Treasurer in more than one, with capital
stocks amounting to 1000; and third that
no stakeholder, however, large, shall cast more
than ten votes. The provisions are all Demo-
cratic. If they related to public institutions,
established to promote the public welfare,
rather than for purposes of private gain no one
would venture to gainsay them.
The success of associated effort in industri-
al enterprise depends on the amount of its cap
ital and the use which is made of it. AS a
simple question of equity, it would be clear,
that those who have the most invested have
the largest interest at stake, and, while other
things remain equal, should have the most to
say On general principles there would be no
reason, among hundred men of equal sagaci-
ty, in arbitrarily combining one portion to a
representation of but fraction of their invest
ment, while the other portions are allowed to
represent the whole. That has been the prin-
ciple on which our business corporations have
been heretofore conducted. But the new bill
contemplates revolution, not for the sake of
equalizing the influences of capital and labor,
but of large capitalists and small ones. The
first result will be to induce large capitalists to
seek other modes of investments than in
branches of manufacturing industry, on ac-
count of which the small capitalists and labor
ers will be, as usual the seyerest sufferers.
Corporations are, undoubtedly, exposed to
grave abuses. Mercenary directors and dis
honest treasurers have caused more sorrow
than will ever reach the public ear. But SO
long as men work for pay, and so long as asso-
ciated capital forms a securer basis for large
enterprises than individual capital, corpora
tons must be encouraged and sustained 1t is
suicidal for any friend, especially of the manu-
featuring enterprises of New England, to claim
in behalf of small stockholders privileges which
they have not asked for, and which would be
injurious if they had them. In matters of this
kind we hold that there should be the least le-
gal restraint consistent with the public safety