New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1898-10-12

AlduIAAooo SAanICuS %UOOniAAS PASASSSo1
street car, telegraph, telephone and 9th
er franchises given away frequently
in perpetuity and without restriction.
To get these and to get get them in such
form as was most profitable to the pros
motels it was always policy, and some
times perhaps necessary, for the promot-
ers to stand in with the party in power.
They have invariably done so and do to-
day. Favors have been conferred and.
;reciprocated between the party in power
and these special interests until their
ends and aims have almost become one.
The same is true of our public institu-
tions. They have been built during this
period and have in many instances be-
come part and parcel of the political
machine in the state. Under these cir.
cumstances to ask the party's leader, for
the time being, to discuss questions af-
fecting the prerogatives of these various
interests is asking a good deal of frall
human nature. As an excuse for this
omission to discuss these questions my
opponent refers to the phenomenal
growth and development of our state.
He says that that speaks we'll for the
management of its affairs by the party in
power. You might as we'll refer to the
phenomenal growth of the city of Min
! neapolis as an evidence of the good man
| agement of It's finances. - .s.. &ss-
The most fertile expedient by which
unscrupulous men have robbed the pub
lie through corporations has been by the
practice known as 'watered stock. Now
I do not wish to be understood as in
| Weighing against corporations as such.
I only condemn the abuses that have
crept in and which they are guilty of.
The corporation is a sort of fictitious
personality created by the law. It is in
dispensable for carrying on many of the
operations of modern society. 1t enab-
les men who could not otherwise en-
bark in business to associate their saw
ings with others and thus raise the req
uisite amount Of capital to undertake
enterprises which an individual could
not carry on: But this being, which the
law creates, possesses attributes and pow
ers not possessed by man. It has brains
without moral responsibility. With
such combination n you can look for
greed and cunning, and we find it too Of
ten. A wicked man dies a corporation
lives on forever. To entrust such beings
with the most important functions of
society such as transportation, ,telegraphy,
etc., without surrounding them with
proper limitations and restrictions and
making them accountable to the state at
any and all times for their doings, seems
little less than criminal. The shares of
stock of corporation and the bonds it
has issued are supposed to represent that
much money paid into its treasury and
expended for corporate purposes. The
stock and bonded indebtedness of the rail
roads in this state average in excess of
$50, 900 per mile, and this notwithstand-
ing the fact that they have received ap-
proximately one third of all our lands,
besides large cash donations. How much
of this capitalization represents money
actually paid in no one can tell. The
Legislature never required the railroad or
ether corporations to make or file any
itemized. statement of money actually
expended in the construction or equip
ment of these public undertakings. It
is safe to say that fully one-half Of the
existing capitalization is "water." That
is, that proportion of the outstanding
shares does not represent any actual
capital paid IN to the corporation. Man,
generally speaking, is honest and just.
The proposition that the laborer is worthy
of his hire is never contested BY the A
merican citizen. The American people
are perfectly willing to accord to capital
fair return for its services. But when
a corporation asks us to pay income on
two dollars where perhaps less than one
was invested we kick and we have a
right to. Railroad managers, naturally
ambitious to make the stock of their cor
porations dividend paying according to
its face value, have imposed rates to
produce that result. These rates have
frequently been exhorbitant and have
deferred industry, and the prosperity
and development Of many sections cf
the state in no small degree. Strife and
antagonism between the producers and
the railroads was the result. The rail-
roads were indiscriminately called rob
bers and they in return retorted by cry