The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-09-13
Concluded.

THE GROWTH OF CORPORATIONS.
Statues exist in several states
under which corpora tions may be
formed for any lawful purpose. In
some states nearly every kind Of bus
mess is being incorporated. This is
the case in Missouri: and | for a
long time bought my meat of a re-
tail butcher who was in fact cor
poration and whose capital did not
amount to $780, All kinds of bust
ness are rapidly assuming the form
of corporate organization. Further
more the large corporations are
steadily eating up the small ones.
Large corporations have found, with
the aid of astute lawyers, the means
of becoming the 0acners of small cor
porations. Wealthy railroad COM
panies have built new railroads in
various western states, under new
corporate names and corporate or
CARNATIONS, but in fact 0eUned by the
prietor or manufacturer, corporated
or unincorpOrated, is crushed out by
the competition of the larger cor
pOrate rival, and is obliged to sell
out to it and receive as it's compen-
satiOn a few shares of its capital
stock. He thus surrenders his bust
ness to corporate managers. The
The evil which | foresee will be two
fold: l. All tangible property in
the state, real and personal, will be
owned by corporations; none of it
will be directly owned by individ-
uals. Such of the people as have
means to invest will have them in
vested soley in the shares Of corpO-
rations. They will thus submit the
entire management Of their proper
ties to the managers of great cor
porations. Every householder will
be. even in respect of his homestead,
the tenant of corporation. 2. All
the producers, with few exceptions.
will become mere ge-wOrkerS,-
holding their right to labor, and
therefore their right to live, as ten
ants at will of corporations, and con-
seQuently of corporate managers.
The corporate manager will thus
WELD a double power: power ever
the stakeholder, which experience
proves to be practically uncontrol-
able, and hence exclusive; and sec
ondly, the power of life and death
over the wageworker. All business
enterprises, all material eXertiOn,
all physical labor, will thus sink I'M
der the capable few who manage the
corporations. Out of the hundreds
of millions our race will expand, a
few will be proprietors and manag-
ers: the great mass will be wage
workers and vassals. The prospect
in store for our children is
ga blindfold bondage where their hire is
blows"
THE IMMORTALITY OF CORPORATIONS.
This corporate life has within it
an essential immortality. That i'm
morality consists in the fact that
the recognition of an artificial being
which alone is legally responsible, de-
stroys all sense of moral responsible
ity on the part of the managers. A
pious stakeholder that would not
think of transacting his own private
business on Sunday, consents that
the business of the corporation
should run every day in year. He
would not Cypress his own employees;
but the drivers and conductors of
the street railroad in which he is a
director work eighteen hours day,
Sunday included. In this and other
like cases he deludes his conscience
into the belief that it is the corpo-
ration, and not he that is commit
ting the sin. He demands certain
results of the managers, and then
shuts his eyes and stops his ears.
He does not know and does not want
to know the means by which they
achieve these results.
The dishonesty into which they
are encouraged by the stockholders,
they in turn employ against the
stockholders themselves. The re-
suit is that our corporate life is hon.