Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-05-24

Corp0ratiO0s ~. the Govern Me0t.
The Nation of last week has very able
article on the Growth Of Corporate snd the De-
cline Of Government Power, from which we
m AXE the following extracts, the force AMI
timeliness of which must be admitted by all
thoughtful and intelligent readers:
Such saying as. 1.-The world is gov
erned tso much," .'The less government you
have the better, Individual enterprise will ac-
complish everything, If you will only give il a
msxims, and = ciety set itself to giving individ
ual enterprise all the chance il asked. At the
same time, the science OF government, which
had received 80 much attention from the earli
est statesmen, was allowed TO die olt in this
country, and the business of governing was
gradually abandoned TO a class of professional
politicians contemptuously called ofhce-holders
anc once seekers, and the task of serving ones
country tell into general disrepute. IL next
became perceptible that the government was
always cheated, and that il began to be thought
that this was inevitable, and, being inevitable
that there was nothing wrong in allowing Ii TO
be done. Ii followed soon that a large proper
ton Of men who passed as respectable secret
ly carried this reasoning a step further, and
held that, il the government must be cheated.
they might as well do the work and reap the
harvest a nybody else.
In country so undeveoped on the one hand
and 50 rich IN resources on the other, there were
innumerable fields for individual ent srprise-
and fields of such vast extent as 70 be beyond
the powers OF any single fortune. Hence il was
seek the aid Of combined capitalists, and that
these combinations should take the form of
corporations. IL il forgotten fact that, in the
first days OF American corporations, they were
not well managed, and that men talked OF their
management then very much as some men now
talk OF the "irremediabe imperfections" of the
civil service. The shrewdress and economy OF
administration that were common in the busi-
ness of individuals no one ever expect ed to see
transferred to the affairs of Incorporated COM
ranies. ON the contrary, 1t was supposed that
the employees of "A corporation would always be
well paid with little to do, and that its contrac-
tors would certainly grow rich. There were
two restrictive elements in the problem which
of late years do not exist-the corporation were
then both small and local, i. E., having no great
wealth, and being owned, managed, and lnfiu-
enced by the local community in which each
existed, and, to great extent, for the interest
and convenience of that community. suffi-
cent Illustration of this will be found in the his
tory of the all-powerful New York Central Rail-
road One company was chartered to build
line OF less than twenty miles from the Hudson
to the Mohawk: another TO build a line of less
than eighty miles from Schenectady to Utica: a
third TO build line of less than sixty miles from
Utica to Syracuse. Such corporations were
manifestly too small, too weak and too local TO
control legislatures, or seriously conflict with
the interests OF the community which created
them. They were practically, as well as theo-
retcally, the creatures of the legislature, and
created for the public convenience. III IL had
been told at that dav that the president and
most of the directors of the old Mohawk and
York, and transact its business there, and that
its president would defantly snap his official
fingers IN the faces OF the citizens OF ALBANY
and tell them that he would run his trains AWAY
from their hotels, and, if they cOmplained
would run all his trains through the town with
out stopping, the story would have been deemed
as fapclful as that OF The Coming Race In
time, however, these several corporate links
with others of the great chain, became welded
together, and since then consultations here and
giant enterprises there have brought great
IA w IN Ia n
mense power OF great and concentrated wealth
which is actively employed made itself almost
Immediately felt. Every eminent lawyer along
the line OF road was its counsel; half of the
judges of the State were stockholders OF direc-
tors, or ex-attOrDeys of the road; the sharpe.t
shrewdest, most active business men in every
town We're III some way interested, or connected
with the company.
With such new forces springing into exist
ence In every state, more numerous il NOT in
trinsically greater, than was ever known before
IN the history OF corporate bodies, and growing
rapidly into magnitude that could never have
been anticipated. and with the efficiency of
American government constantly lessening il
Is apparent that time might, indeed must
come when government would be really too in
efficient TO maintain the rights of society by
duly restraining their aggressive powers. Such
Is not far from the condition of American
society at the present moment. Indeed, as
against the government, all the administrative
talents of the country are to be found among the
corporations. Their managers have learned
for 1t; while Congress, in its ignorance, has
been abandoning the early policy Of the country
and. by nggardliness to everybody connected
with the government except its own members
has been driving the talent of the country out
OF the public service. What chance had the
its War department.? Where is A ssistant Secre-
tary Fox, who was practically the head of the
Navy department during the war? Does anv
one suppose that MIR. Vanderbilt could he in
duced to accept a secretaryship in exchange for
his present Office? Did not the last solicitor
general resign the second legal position under
the government to become the law officer OF A
railway company? Is not the United States
district attorney i'm each of the two largest
cities on the continent a comparatively young
and inexperienced lawyer whom no corDor atom
would entrust with the control Of its legal AFT
fairs, but who is entrustedRwith all the law
business, civil and criminal, OF the government?
mobilier railroad cases-Mr. Curtis, Mr.. Eyarts
Mr.. Gushing and Mr.. Bartlett-with the attor-
ney- general and his two juniors. Contrast too
the liberal fees that will be paid to these really
leading counsel with the salaries of the attor
ney and solicitor generals. Manifestly society.
as represented by government, is beaten where
ever IL comes In contact with the great corpor-
atoms, because society has allowed these cor
pOratiOns to secure as agents men who can ont
general, 0utwork, and in an ordinary fight over
come, the men who are the agents of the GOV
eminent. Corporations to a certain extent take
the place in American society of the privileged
classes in aristocratic Europe; for thew consti-
tute feudal system which exacts service if
not homage, from an influential portion of
every community, and which carries on dis
gu'sed warfare with the government, sometimes
In Con sress, sometimes in state legslatures in
which warfare concentrated wealth and mower
are arrayed against the wishes and, n some