New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-22
TKE4TNENT or CORPORAL TONS.

In a recent sermon OF unusua INTEREST
distinguished clergyman dwelt upon the vicious
influence of what he called corporate mofahty.
Corporations were sOuless and dealt with IN
dividuals in fashion quite unrestralned by
moral obligations; individuals in their turn
would swindle corporation where they would
not wrong other individuals; and thus the
whole tone of society was lowered. On sucn
grounds it was argued that corporations had
been inimical to the highest and best life oil
the country.
The logic, if good at ALL proves too much.
Governments have no souls, and are prone to
wrong individuals without conjunction. In
diyiduals rob Governments who would not
rob each other. Are we therefore to infer that
all Governments are pernicious to the moral
life Of manllind2 1t needs no eloquent clergy
man to tell us that human nature finds more
difficulty in recognizing its obligations to
complex and artificial personality, the state OF
the corporation, than in recognizing its obilga-
tions to another human being OF the same
rights and needs, the same capacities for suffer-
ing or enjoyment. In the slow education and
uplifting of human nature the race has not yet
advanced so far, be it admitted, that the alb
solute right is by all instantly perceived,
whether it be the right of an individual or oil
an association Of individuals; not 50 far that
the absolute wrong commands equal censue,
whether suffered by person or by an aggle-
CATION of persons But because the childish
feet still stray and stumble, shall they stop
trying to walk?
Each age Of the world, each stage in the de-
velopment of a nation, is marked by some dom
inant idea which governs the most continuous,
persistent and fruitful efforts. To get rid Of
slavery, TO cement the Union, to restore the
Nations credit and currency, were ideas worth
grand endeavOr and self-Sactifice. Now the
Nation is burning with the thought that the
relations between the State, the individuals
and the corporations need readjustment 1t
is felt that in creating corporations, the State
has not properly guarded public or private
rights against "a power which not at first
complehended or measured 1t is felt that
the Nation must in some way recover for itself
and for the people nights and powers which
have been ignorantly Or thoughtessly signed
away The same struggle has many forms;
regulation of railroads and prohibition Of trusts
are but two phases of the same study en-
deavCr to recover for society part Of It's free
dom and it's power to shape it's own future, OF
which the vast and increasing might Of cor
porations threatens to deprive it. The instinct
of the people rarely moves in this solid de
liberate and persistent fashion toward an end
altogether unworthy.
Yet when one realizes what enormous and
beneiicent changes have been effected by cor
porate action, how the whole world has been
lecleated under the influence Of thai magic
wand, how human labor has been economized,
human suffering alleviated, human life pro-
lOnged, how wealth has been multiplied and
its fruits brought within reach Of all, so that
the poorest may now enjoy much that was be-
yond the reach of princes and milliOnaires or
Of any except them, but a few years ago, he
is tempted to ask whether the blind Samson
straining against the pillars of the temple may
not be crushed IN It's fall and bulied in It's
ruins. Regulation is not destruction. Limit
ation and proper restriction are not blind and
sweeping prohibition. There is more passion
than reason in much Of the eXtrayagant ont
cries against corporations az enemies of the
public welfare. Like fire, they are good SER
wants but bad masters. The business Of adj
yancing civilization is not to put ont all the
fires, but only to put and keep the servant
in its place.