The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-07-24
PRIVATE CORPORATIONS.
An Able Man Discusses One OF tho Burns
ing Questions.

An Able Man Discusses One or the Burn>
ing Questions.
Judge N. M. Hubbard, Of Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, recently delivered a
speech from which the following ex-l
tracts are taken. The question dis
cussed is one, of the greatest import
ance; and the adoption of the remedy
proposed, one of the most urgent de-
mands and an essential requirement to
annihilate trusts and destroy combines.
He says:
The subject given me is corpora
tions. All private corporations for
pecuniary profit should be abolished.
except only those of quasi-public
character, such as railroad, telegraph,
telephone. insurance, banking corpora
tions and the like; and these should
be under the control of public law, or
else owned and managed by the gov
ernment Railroads are already I'M
der the control of the public law.
The short reason is that corporations
destroy individual competition in the
acquisition of wealth.
Fifty years ago steam machinery
had come into such general use that
one skilled operator could do the work
of five or six at hand labor, now, one
person does the work of sixty at hand
labor and the end is not yet! The
state of New York has over 100, 900
private corporations for pecuniary
profit, and new articles are being filed
at the rate of 10, 900 each year. In
Ohio there are 1853 of such corpora
tons; 1000 of these were organized
between 1851 and 1880. Between 1880
and 1885, 1872 were organized. Iowa
has 5000 private corporations, one
half of which have been organized
within the past six years, and over
1000 within the past year. / believe
there are not less than one-half mil
lion of private corporations for
pecuniary profit in the states OF this
union. These are exclusive of rail-
road. telegraph, telephone, insurance
and banking corporations. The total
number of railway corporations in the
United States is 1,778, and less than
1000 of them are engaged in the active
operations of railways. These wholly
private corporations have invaded
every kind of business from tooth
picks to collins, and from roasting
peanuts to building railroads. Not
only is nearly all manufacturing, but
the wholesaling of dry goods, grocer
les and hardware is fast going into the
hands of corporate bodies. Business
avenues for young men in the future
must consist largely of corporate
clerkships. During the last half
century we have been producing wealth
so fast that little attention has been
paid to the equal distribution of it.
Nobody can get into a corporation
without money. It is an organization
exclusively for those who have CAPT.
tai. Neither the farm products of
next year nor the wages of the me-
chanic for tomorrow will buy shares
in corporation There are many
objections to private corporations for
pecuniary profit.
A private corporation is an organ
lied appetite for money only, and has
nothing human about it. 1t sees dis
tress without an emotion of pity; it
gives nothing to the poor; it pays no
lie schools; it does not attend funerals
or weddings; it cannot weep; it can
not even laugh; what use have we for
such animals? But if it should be ad-
mitted that the abolition of private
corporations will seriously disturb the
business of the country, is it not bet
ter to stand the shock now than to
postpone it until the shock may de-
stroy the fabric of the government
itself?
Railway corporations and others of
a public character must remain be-
cause they are for the use of the pub
lie until the government shall see fit
to own and operate them. But they
must be controlled (not destroyed) by
public law. l believe the only remedy
and the only method to settle the vexed
controversy between labor and capital
is to restore individual judgment, in
dividual responsibility, and individual
competition in all the business of the
country. The States have all reserved
the right to abrogate and abolish all
corporate charters and the quicker
they exercise this right the earlier we
shall have an equitable distribution of
wealth of this country. Let us unsyn-
date all the syndicated money of the
capitalists now in private corporations
and put it into the hands of those who
win it. SO that every man, woman and
child may compete for it. Mr.. Jetfer-
sons guarantee of an equal race in the
pursuit OF happiness is already de-
stroyed. Is it not better to take the
chances of distributing the business of
the country by calling halt now, than
go forward in the present great pro-
duction of wealth if the greatest share
OF it is to be for the sole benefit of
those who are already too rich? Pri-
vate corporations must finally suffer
the fate of human slavery-must be
abolished. They both lead to the same
end-the despoiling of the many for
the benefit of the few. Let us hope the
revolution will be peaceful.
Here is the gem of the whole
l