The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-06-19

du o1tlCl0, VI q 0cIv1C0, 10 IuOs Dul SuCu
admission does not establish the fact
that corporations are better fitted to per-.
form the service, or that the cost to the
public will be less: for there b a wide diff
ference between the cost of production, to
the. corporation, n the price charged
by the corporation to its patrons, the
public. To prove the corporation best
qualified to perform any public function
1t must be proven, not only that its stock
holders are prosperous and satisfied, but
that the public receives its service at the
lowest net price possible to attain; lower
in fact than it can be performed by the
organization in which all are stockhold-
ers whether they will or no-"the gov
eminent" Taking the transportation
business as an example, one does not
have to go far below the surface to learn
that under corporation-rule the greatest
opportunities and the strongest incentives
exist for the highest fu%nctionaries. 1t is
through mismanagement, pure and SIM
pie, that corporations can be wrecked and
the small stockholders frozen out to the
immense pecuniary advantage of the
manipulators. That these opportunities
are taken advantage of and the tempta-
lions are yielded to by corporation man.
ayers, is too plainly told by the record of
OoAA 0PlSy - II Oil 4l1pOAC dAL
chapter in the history of most railroads
in this country, to be for a moment doubt
ed. The evidence is so plain and I'M
mistakable that a blind man would STUN
BILE against it; the fact itself is so notori-
Gus that it needs no argument.
What is true Of railroad corporations Is
true Of every other class of corporations,
so that it cannot be proven that they are
a benefit pecuniarily ever to the average
OF their own stockholders, to say nothing
OF their blighting effect upon the activ-
tiles Of the people at large. This blight
Ing effect is visible in many directions,
but nowhere Is it more plainly manifest
ed than in our constantly growing army
of incompetents who are unable to plan or
execute the simplest business undertaking
for themselves. This class is the direct
product of the corporation which, by plac-
ing thousands under the complete control
OF a few men deprives them of the oppor-
tunity to exercise their own faculties of
inventiveness and judgment. Upon the
development of these faculties depend to
a great extent whether an individual is to
gainfor himself a position Of independence
or sink into the ranks of the paid lackeys.
II corporations are to usurp the field of
individual effort and responsibility, we
"AAA uOVCAOP AACO q AoIAOA VI uClUl0SS LII
beetles; a travesty upon humanity; an
object lesson in retrogressive evolution.
No nation can SO arrange its industrial
system as to deprive it's citizens of their
natural opportunities to develop all the
faculties which they possess without
bringing down upon itself the righteous
wrath of outraged nature. If we choose
to become a nation of corporate servants,
nature will fit us for that position and
make us a nation of fools. That she has
already made some progress In that di-
rection is evident from the complacency
with which, as a people, we view the
usurpations of our prerogatives as men.
by corporate m%onopolies.
Giving corporations credit for all the
good they have done, and charging them
with all the evils which they have brought
in their train, the verdict Of the future
will, no doubt, be Meme, Meme tekel
Upharsin." And to those who believe
that departures from the natural order of
things are but diseases and that If per-
sisted in they must bring dissolution, no
good reason exists why these excres-
sences upon the body polite should not
be removed, and by surgical operation if
need be; nor can they doubt that if a
cure is not effected death must follow.
The social body being quite as much SUBJ
ject to natural law and quite as sensitive
to violations of that law as the physical
body, the ultimate result of a departure
from the natural order must, sooner or
later, end in the destruction of the social
system. This means the heaping upon
the heads of the unthinking people all
the evils attendant upon the bursting
asunder of the old social fabric, the in
terregnum of "chaos" and the slow, pain
ful upbullding of a new. Whether the
American people shall pass through this
terrible ordeal or save themselves by a
timely and prompt reversal of their pres
ent policy remains to be seen. Upon their
own actions will depend whether the
future historian shall stamp them with
his mark of approval. or shall be COM
PEELED to place them in the same category
with Egypt, Rome and Babylon.
p. M. RINGDAL.