The Yale expositor., 1897-01-15


ice and no one should be permitted 10
give free service upon any consideration.
company which Tor years mas egharged
give free service. and the result might
be to wreck a younger company, destroy
capital and enterprise and leave the COM
munity i'm the hands of the old monopoly.
80 All telephone companies I'm city
should be compelled to exchange telephone
municipal authorities: The present law
contains a provision looking to that end,
but l am satisfied that II is too indefinite
TO be made available. a. The law
against consolidation of telephone com
panies should be made so positive and
emphatic and contain such penalties and
forfeitures that 1t would be impossible
TO evade IL.
Prisons.
The treatment of criminals is one of
the vexed questions of the age. Crimi-
nails are of two classes, corrigible and in
corrigible. These should be kept separate
in all reformatory institutions. The orig
inal purpose Of the establ shment OF the
prison at Ionia was to provide a place for
those who were not deemed TO be hard
ened criminals. / fear that this purpose
has not always been kept i'm view. l rec
ommepd that some discretion be lodged
in the prison boards for transferring from
Ionia prison those who have been found
to be incorrigible; and also for transfer
ring from prisons to Ionia such inmates
can be no greater nursery for crime than
prison which permits the association of
the vicious with those who are merely
unfortunate.
The care of criminals is another ques-
ton which becomes every year subject
for more serious and thoughtful consd-
Grafton. The employment Of machinery
and the manufacture OF articles which
compete with the products OF our great
industries Is in my opinion fundamentally
and radically wrong. Hundreds of great
prfeODc in the TTpitcd States have become
immense manufacturing establishments.
VIII IL not be proper 10 make an effort TO
Would it not be wei to investigate the
question of utilizing and charging the
present system Of prison farms TO the
greatest possible extent for the produc-
ton Of such articles Of food as may be
necessary to feed prisoners? If hand
labor only were employed both upon the
farms ana within the walls; II seems 70
me that the prisoners could be kept at
work and could produce enough for their
own support without creating surplus
and thus crowding the market with prison
made goods The sale OF prison made
goods in competition with the products of
free labor has tendency to reduce prices
for such goods and hence reduce wages.
The mingling of prison made goods with
others enables those handling the same TO
cut the prices below fair profit, and In
order to obviatc this / am of the opinion
that all prison made goods should be
labeled and no label should be removed
until tho final purchase from the retailer.
Coal and other State Resources.
l find that but few of the state institu-
tions are supplied with Michigan coal. AS
the state IL interested in the development
of these mines 1 would suggest the pro-
priety Of the more extended use of this
fuel by these institutions
All of the elements required for making
Michigan one of the foremost manufac-
turing states Of the world are present in
tho state on every hand, inexpensive tran
sport inclusive. Coal is pleatiful; and
water power, without naming the force
reserved in the rapids of the Sault ste.
Marie river, is unsurpassed. The vast
resources of Michigan may be best Illus
trated by citing the fact that less thah
fifty years ago there were but three mil
lionaires in the United States and by con-
trasting this with the more startling fact
that Michigan mines have been making at
least one millionaire year for the cities
of the east besides sustaining in large
part as great a fleet for other states as
that passing through the Suez canal.
received as her share Is as the bounty OF
nature to the crust OF charity You are
here to legislate for Michigan, and de-
sire to freely express the opinion that
were these conditions mastered there
would be much less need for the mainte-
nance of charitable institutions by the
state, and much less valid complaint or
excessive taxation.
The success of the agitation for good
roads depends entirely upon a more equit-
able system of taxation. 1t is plainly APP
parent that one class of our citizens, the
farmers, is bearing greater share of the
taxation of the state proportioned TO
values than another class, the organiza-
tions receiving corporate privileges from
the state government. So long as this
inequality exists just so long will the
farming communities have manifestly just
cause 10 oppose appropriations from
which at the best they can draw no more
benefit than the rest of the people of the
state, and from which, as a matter of
fact, they draw less. Good wagon roads
are a direct benefit to villages and cities
and TO transportation companies. Each
should pay a proportionate share OF such
benefit. There is absolutely no question
as TO the necessity of good roads for
Michigan; but the state rendered poor by
unequal direct taxation and exorbitant
indirect taxation, cannot afford at the
present time to enter into the great work
of constructing public roads at an outlay
that will assure substantial highways
which VIII endure for some time TO come.
The state government must first satisfy
the people with a measure OF equal taxa
ton before the question of good roads can
be entered upon; indeed before any meas
ure Involving an appropriation of public
money is seriously approached.
Arbitration.
In the experience of the state Of Michi-
gan, II not in that of the United States,
1t is found that the military arm is called
into requisition to suppress riots, chiefly
on account of disagreements between cor
porations and their employees. Recourse
to the military should be the final eX-
treme resort. II is the duty of corpora
tions to live at peace with their neigh
bors. And employees have a like duty TO
perform. Neither has any rights superior
to the other in the eyes of the people. 1t
is the duty of the state to preserve the
peace and defend the rights of all. But
ii is also the duty of the state to prevent
that which tends to disturb the peace or
which infringes such rights and to that
end laws have been passed and courts
have been instituted. TO further promote
that end, / would recommend that no body
of men be allowed the privilege of incor-
poration without their free consent, ex-
pressed in the articles of Incorporation,
as in part consideration for such privilege,
that all disputes found impossible OF ad-
justment between employer and employe
shall be referred to arbitrators.
statistics Relating TO Corporations.
The value of statistics to the state re-
lating to corporations is incalculable. But
they are valueless If they do not extend
far enough to afford the legislature abb
solutely safe material from which TO
gather the correct deductions upon which
the regulation of corporations is based
n - n.