The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-12-21
Instructive Address at the Commence
ment Exercises of Philadelphia
Business College.
EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYE
Both Responsible for the Antag-
Onism That Exists.
Danger of Uncontrolled Combines
Crimes That Shame Our Civilization
General Labor News.


from New York and will remain here for
three days, the guest Of ex-Postmaster-
general Wanamaker.
The ex-President was the chief guest at
a dinner given in his honor by Thomas May
Pierce at the Bellevue this afternoon. In
the evening the ex-President delivered an
address at the commencement exercises OF
the Pierce Business College In the Academy
of Music. The address was In the main
confined TO advice to young men, but there
were portions of it which dealt with public
questions. OF strikes and labor agitation
generally the speaker said:
cit is a sad and dangerous fact that cap
ital and labor are organized to hight eacn
other; that the laboring man Is taught 10
regard his employer as an antagonist-too
often as an enemy-and that the greedy or
what he regards an unwarranted inter-
ference with his business, Is sometimes 700
ready to treat workman with a grievance
chine-throw it into the scrap pile.
Like the armed peace now malntalneQ
in Europe, this situation is costly and
dangerous Every benevolent and thought
full man is anxious and distressed: L sup
pose a just and perfect peace will not be
established until the kingdom the Elder
Brother is set up throughout the world
and the golden rule becomes the law or
human life. The right to acquire Is more
important to the poor man than the r1ch.
Many reforms are weakened by their ex-
clusiveness-the invitation is not wide
enough. Men are put on the other side be-
their skin, without chance to make
their own choice. 1t is a most wholesome
shs G fnxaSs sas So
teaching of anarchy. The workman is a
producer; the Anarchist destroyer; and
poor be helped by the destruction or other
mems gropertGy or by anS tS Sr
Streefs ra fllll of fumult and mems hearts
OF fear. Is there any harvest for toll?
There is only one good thing ling about 49Sut
give men an opportunity to show their con-
Germ for each other. The will of the largest
brotherhood is being called, and men see
with great wonder how great the family Is.
How many idle workmen now see that 1t
Is not safe TO assume that their employers
interests and theirs are wholly antagonis-
tic or that one umbrella may not shelter
both. Is not the conclusion too clear TO
escape the most sluggish understanding:
that hard times for the employer cannot
be good times for the employe? A brisk
and regular demand for the products or Ia
Dor at fair prices is the only safe support
of the wage scale as it is OF dividends"
Concerning trusts, Mr.. Harrison has this
to say:
LAS between natural persons using in
their business pursuits only powers that are
common TO all, competition is upon reas-
onably fair basis. Bnt 1t mas been Iouno
artificial persons. called corporations, and
TO confer upon them special powers, SUCH as
perDetuity of life, limited liability OF the
shareholders, the right To appropriate an
other mans property without mis- consent
upon making compensation, to take tolls.
etc Those endowed corporations, in many
branches of business, become the competi-
tors of natural persons and all-poWerfully
affect and influence trade. They nave Deen,
perhaps. the greatest factor In the rapid
development of the national wealth; they
are Indispensable, but the magnitude OF these
corporations, the enormous powers they
possess and the often elusive character of
their ownership and management, suggest
restraint. control and limitation We have
been most prof1igate III our grants or these
special powers; but mistakes viii not be
corrected but duplicated. by a policy OF
destruction. Here. as elsewhere. passion and
epithets hinder the truth and retard reform.
Persecution has so strong reaction that it
may even popularize corporation The
capital error in our legislation has been the
failure to limit and TO supervise corporate
securities; to require that the stock shall
represent an investment and that the in
vestrnent shall be adequate to the enterprise:
that creditors may be secured, and that the
public may not be tolled or the labOrers
wages cut to pay interest or dividends on
securities that do not stand for Investments.
THE restraint Of trusts, and combines,
and corners by which some particular sru-
Gle of commerce is monopolized, either per-
manently or for a time, iS another obvious
and urgent duty. They unsettle that fair
balance of things, that equality or oppor-
tunities which must be preserved if the
poor are TO be content and the rich secure.
But neither is this the work OF thoughtless
passion. What is done ShOuld De done with
discrimination, calmness and Justice
The ex-President condemns lynching in
the following terms
'"These frightful lynchings that the daily
papers record with their shocking incidents
of cruelty. shame our civilization. The vic
tins are the poor and weak. and the ade-
uuacy of the courts to punish such has
never been impeached. The tendency Of such
acts il not to repress crime. but 70 propa-
gate hate and to incite the vicious 10
yenge to brutaliZe not only the particl-
pants but those who read the bloody story.
1t Is not enough silently, even openly,
10 condemn such crime. We must make
the sentiment of disapproval dominant and
boldly reinforce the officers of the law. II
a crime Is done in the name OF temperance
or labor or of any other good cause, or
hides under it's skirts, the friends Of that
good cause should lead the chase after the
lawbreaker and never rest until they have
thoroughly disassociated the good cause
and the bad man."
Tomorrow evening the ex-Presidents
ception at the Union League will take place.
Two thousand invitations have been sent
out