The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-15

pie shall know as little as possible Of
them and their operations. DO you moi
suppose that the people are alive TO these
great and pressing questions? Or do yon
think that they will muteiy. tolerate The
efforts which are being made TO 1urtner
the growth of unlawful trusts and mon
opolies and the granting to them Of
shameful iInmunities, such as our state
proposes to do by this act? The people
will hold us accountable for these laws,
and they would be unworthy the right Of
suffrage IL they did not resent and re-
buke such legislation. Moreover, tney
will charge us their represent atives. with
the responsibility for the passage of such
laws, when they are made To feel the dis
grace of hearing their State slightly re-
tions, which every other State alive 10
their oppressive opera ton, is energet1cally
striving to destroy.
We are the first State, gentlemen, to
attempt to annul that comfy which has
existed between the States since the
adoption of the Federal Constitution.
The comfy of States, / repeat, has al,
ways been recognized and respected
without reference TO that constitutional
provision that full faith and credit
shall be given. in each State, to the pub
of every other State, ''-and that clause u
the fourteenth amendment, mo State
shall make or enforce. any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunl-
ties of citizens of the United States"
In view of the extensive and intimate
business relations sustained between the
different States foreign corporations
have by this code of voluntary courtesy,
been free to carry on business as long as
they conform to the laws imposed Ter
tions have long enjoyed that privilege IN
New York and other States. mucn as the
status Of such corporations has been open
to conjecture. But when New Jersey
enacts legislation intended to protect her
corporations from the consequences OF
violating the statutes of other States, or
III nah
does vastly more to destroy the comfy
now existing and recognized than appears
by the simple terms of the law
Do we forget that it is the sovereign
power of the people that corporations
are created? This being so, the power
of the creators of corporations should
certainly be greater than the corporations
created. Why then is it not a shameful
reproach to the fair name of New Jersey
to be recognized far beyond her bound.
aries as a State held fast in the grasp of
corporations? Our late President, Mr..
Cleveland in one of his messages to the
Legislature of New York, rightly said
Our laws in relation to the forma-
ton Of corporations are extremely
selves of their provisions should be
held to a strict compliance with their
requirements. # corporations are 70
be relieved . for the asking their
liability to the people with whom they
deal will soon become dangerously un-
certain and indefinite
Created as they are by the authority of
the Legislature the fact must be ad-
mitted that foreign corporations have no
right to transact business in a State
other than the State of their origin, with
out the sufferance. of the State in which
they carry on their business. such
State can place any restriction it sees fit
on a foreign corporation, and limit its
privileges; 1t is within the power Of
New York and Pennsylvania to do this
in respect to the corporations created in
this State and operating there. Now if
we attempt to interfere with the policy
or authority of those States. as we are
certainly trying to do, we can only ex-
pect retaliation. Upon this point, Mr..
Justice Field. late of the United States
Supreme Court, has said
The corporation being the mere crea-
tion of local law, can have no legal
existence beyond the limits of the
sovereignty where created. 1t must
dwell in the place of its creation and
cannot migrate to another sovereignty.
The recognition of its existence, even,
by other States, and the enforcement
of its contracts made therein, depend E
purely upon the comfy of those
States. They dhe States) could
not repel an intruding corporation,
except on the condition of refusing in
corporation for a similar purpose to
their own citizens; and yet it might
be of the highest public interest that
the property of corporations in the
State should be limited; that they
should be required to give publicity
to their transactions, to submit their
affairs to proper examination, to be
subject to forfeiture of their corpor-
ate rights in case of miSmanagement;
and that their officers should be held
in strict accountability for the man
ner in which the business of the cor
poration is managed, and be liable to
summary removal.
These are not unreasonable require
ments. They have not been considered
so, even in New Jersey, for the past
twenty-five years, and unless they have
K arlfr cd wit har r6 a.
tions there is no need for the proposed
act. the growth of corporations and
State, during that period, is sufficient
rebuttal to that proposition. No! 1t is
not that the present law is unjust
toward corporations, but it is a demand
Grant US greater immunity from sister
States" that these insidious and relent-
less bodies are making upon New Jersey
Such laws as this one disturb society
We are continually probabing to find the
source of the evil which causes disquiet-
endeavoring to formulate a remedy; but
we often overlook the read cause. The
friends of this measure will charge, as an
abstract proposition, that nobody has the
right to interfere with the legitimate bus
mess of another but they overlook the
fact that, under existing conditions, it is
largely the combination of wealthy capt.
talistS to control the necessities of life
to make the consumer the dependent, to
stihe Independent competition and take
away the individuals means of support
winch arOuSeS AOppOSlllOH ana dlSreSpect
for law. They forget that strikes and
boycotts are often an owth-coercion
against coercion. Corporate capital has
ceased to exist for the public veal; in its
aggression it has reached the acme of
selfishness. Individual industry counts for
little in competition with corporations
which are confessedly without conscience
and enjoy perpetual youth. In legal par
lance, they never die. And not content
with being exempt from the death limit,
they become perpetually and increasingly
oppressive.
Is it any wonder that corporations are
such tremendous power among us, when
through the immunities we offer we see
every Illegal trust and combination flock
ing to New Jersey to perfect it's organic
existence, where they are assured of all
the protection that law can give. l say
that it is a croWning disgrace to this
State that each successive Legislature
stoops to enact some law which further
removes these huge and oppressive bodies
from liability and responsibility to the in
dividual citizen, by whom, as a sovereign
part of this Commonwealth, they are ere
ated. do not say it is unWise. l say
it is infamousi And we grant these fa-
vors for a paltry tax, which is itself in
significant when judged by fair stand
ard of assessment. Look at the Sugar
Trust, capitalized at s740Oo,000, and paying
Tobacco Trust, capitalized at about S30,-
100000 and paying a trlfle over $4,000. The
Leather Trust capitalized at SIPS. COO, 600
and paying Sc, ,995. The Rubber Trust, cap
ftalized at $40 100000 and paying IS, 700. The
Cottonseed Oil Trust, capitalized at $780,
coo. 900 and paying tax OF SS,04i. And the
Cordage Trust, capitalized at $4,000, 600
and paying into the State Treasury a tax
of SIS, 400 And these are but few.
Was there ever more humilating as