The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-10-19
NO SPECIAL PLEA
Mr.. Eckels Describes Ger.
tain Corporation Rights.
The Individual Interests Involved.
Taxing POWer-PoIitiCaI Me-
legislation.

of We're made in an address delivered
by eX-Comptroller Eckels before the
Fire Insurance Underwriters Associa-
said that he mad no special plea TO
make for corporations, whether bank
ing, insurance or railway, except the
plea that the public should remember
that the owners of them all are individ-
ual citizens, who cannot be made 10
lose their individual identity or rights
by corporate association. The public.
he said, readily grants to the private
individual every right of property
within his immediate control, but that
right is not infrequently denied him
as applied TO the corporate property
in which he possesses an ownership.
The fees and taxes taken from cor
poratiOns are, the speaker said, over
and beyond the fees and taxes taken
from private individuals with interests
of a Ike character and Of equal profit.
The exercises of the taxing power
as exempified in state, county and mu
|
day may well, he said, challenge the
attention of every thoughtful citizen.
In the vast majority of instances the
country finds its property subject to
the tax levies of those who. have the
least amount of it to be affected by
the rate and its revenue disbursed by
those who have contributed little or
nothing thereto. The consequence of
such conditions is inequality and reck-
Iessness upon the one hand and extra
vagance and waste upon the other. The
public is without benefit through such
a course, while the quasi-public cor
porations drawn upon most largely are
crippled in their ability to give to the
public the full purpose of their crea-
ton. Yet it is objected that corpora
| tionS shall not enter the arena of poll
tics and undertake to exercise an in
! f1uence at the polls in order to secure
protection for property which, though
held in the corporate name, is none the
less the property of private individuals.
Mr.. Eckels made distinctive declara-
ton in saying that within the lines of
fairness, honesty and law there can be
no proper objection to any corpora
ton, whether it be an insurance, bank
ing or railway company, insisting
through its owners everywhere upon
having every right that is its due and
undoing every wrong.
\ -~1-
the present conditions to the fault of
the members of corporations them
selves. 1t is. he says, the failure by
the owners to enter protest against as
saults on such corporations on the
platform, in legislature halls and
through the columns of the press that
has encouraged demagoguery, intro
duced a new kind of party politics and
made possible the long sessions of I'M
rest and discomfort which at recurring
periods have come to disturb the coun-
try and threaten business prosperity.
| No corporation properly conducted
need, he said. apologize for its exist
ence, nor deny to its members through
ment the right to demand a treatment
based upon the same conditions at the
hands Of the law makers and public
officials as is accorded private interests.
for insurance interests, banking inter-
ests and railway interests are all pro-
motive and not destructive of public
and private good.
From another point Of view Mr.
Eckels is led TO criticise the action OF
governmental authorities in relation
to corporations. Reference is made TO
the tendency which seems omnipresent
to supervise all business undertakings, |
whether private or quasi-public, |
through legislative enactments. As the !
result of this tendency the country, in
stead of being one OF few laws and re
sJricted powers of government eXer- !
.cised by a limited number of officials, |
has become one OF innumerable stat !
.utes, far-reaching authority and hordes |
of public servants. Against this tenden- |
cy Mr.. Eckels enters a vigorous pro
test. Excessive supervision, he says. is
worse than no supervision at all. Too
much governmental interference ham,
pers and retards instead Of aiding and
advancing the corporate powers for do
ing good, for the individual must have
some latitude within which 10 conduct
the business in which he is engaged.
or else the public and private individu-
ais at times may be subject TO need
less embarrassment and loss Mr..
Eckels is not one of those who object
altogether to governmental supervision
as intelligently made by competent,
skilled and honest officials. BY such
officials, he is free to admit, a bank. an
insurance company or a railway corpo-