The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-28
OPPRESSED
CORPORATIONS
EX-COmptrOlIer James III. Eek
els Makes a Plea
For DOwntrOdden Capital
Throughout the Land.
MUCH SUPERVISION
He Thinks is Bad For All Par
ties Concerned.
Justifies Corporate Attempts
to Control Legislation.

Chicago. Sept. 28.-Ex- Comptroller
James H. Eckels spoke to the Fire In
surance Underwriters association to-
day, his topic being, 1.-The country's
great interests He said in part:
1.-THE commercial world in this day Of
excessive competition may not improp-
erly be criticised for its demand that
the insurance company and the bank do
business upon such a margin OF charge
for service rendered that both must go
beyond the pale Of business safety ana
undertake dubious and doubtful expert
ments in order to gain dividends for
share holders. There is no legerdemaln
in corporate business methods by which
bad financiering in individual manage
ment becomes good in corporate. And
therefore when the man of commerce
exacts of the insurance company and
the bank, payment for the privilege OF
transacting his insurance and banking
business for him, instead of eV1dencing
that willingness to pay for the same,
he introduces methods which are con-
trary to all the rules that he would
If a safe man, apply to the conduct or
his own affairs.
1.-THE business of banking and OF in
surfing against loss ought not to be an
experimental business and to the ex-
tent that the commercial world aids
and abetS those who would make 1t
such, it threatens its own good and Gre
ates uncertainty where certainty should
prevail.
establishment of bank and insurance
companies without regard to the
commercial need for their existence,
but solely for the purpose OF giving
place and salary to those who are to Of
ficer them. The trade and commerce
of any community can properly sup
port so many, and no more, and when
ever that number, gagged by CONNER
cia1 needs, is filed, all beyond must in
evitably result in loss to the stockhold-
ers, and disturbance to the community.
To- Il h.
may work out the problem, but the pro-
cess of evolution is a long and expensive
one. and in this day and generation
ought not to be so FREQUENTLY invoked
It have no special plea to make for
corporations. whether banking, insur-
ance or railway, except the plea that
the public should remember that the
owners of them all are individual citi-
zens, who cannot be made to lose their
individual identity or rights by corpor-
ate association. The public readily
right of property within his immediate
control, but that right is not unfre-
quently denied him as applied to the
corporate property in which he pos
fees and taxes by the public through
law governing rates, as applied to many
corporations, are over and beyond those
taken from the private individual with
interests of a like character and equal
profit
Exercise of the taxing power as ex-
emplified in state county and munich
pal matters in this country today. may
well challenge the attention of every
thoughtful citizen. The country finds
property in the vast ma Ority of instan-
ces 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 contribute
ed little or nothing thereto. The conse.
quence of such condition is inequality
and recl<lessness upon the one hand and
extrava gance and waste upon the other
The public is without benefit through
such course, while the quasi-public
corporations drawn most largely upon,
are crippled IN their ability to give to
the public the full purpose of their Gre
alton. And vet it is objected that cor
pOrate powers shall not enter the arena
of politics and undertake to exercise an
influence at the polls in order to secure
protection for property, which though
held IN the corporate name, is none the
less the property of the associated pri-
vate individuals. Within the lines OF
fairness, honesty and law, there can
be no proper objection to any corpora
ton whether it be an insurance, bank or
railway one, insisting through its owners
everywhere upon having every right
that is it's due and undOing every wrong
1t is the failure by the owners to enter
protest against assaults on such corpor-
ations on the platform in Iegisla tive hall
and through the columns of the press
that has encouraged demagogery, intro
duced new kind of party politics, and
made possible the long seasons of unrest
and discomfort which at recurring pc
RODS have come upon us to disturb the
country and threaten business prosper
ity. No corporation properly conduct
ed, need apologize for its existence
nor deny to it's members through an un-
wholesome supposed public sentiment
the right to demand a treatment based
upon the same conditions, at the hands
of law makers and public officers as
is accorded private interests. The in
Surance interests, the bank interests
interests
and not destructive of public and pri-
vate good, and the Gripping by them
by pubic act or private denunciation,
entails loss upon a body of citizens,
measured in numbers only by the sphere
of their influence and the circle of their
operations.
1.-The tendency from the national leg
islation hall down through all the grades
of the common council, is to supervise
all business undertakings, whether
private or Quasi-public, through legis-
lative enactment The be it enacted
reaches everywhere, and the man in
authority lays his hand upon every en-
terpriSe and undertakes to direct the
course of its conduct. The country in
stead of being one of few laws, and re-
stricted powers exercised by a limited
number of officials, has become one of
innumerable statutes, far reaching au-
thoritY, and hOrdeS Of public servants.
Nothing is too great, nothing is too
small to be reached, and in the end we
find a supposed democratic form of
government losing itself IN a paternaliS-
tic one, with government, national and
local. insisting on doing a thousand
things that of right ought to be done,
and can be done better, by individuals.
Excessive supervision is worse than
no supervision at all. Too much gov
ernmental interference hampers and re-
tards instead Of aids and advances the
corporate powers for doing good. The
individual must have some latitude
within which to conduct the business
he has engaged upon, or else the public
and the private individual, at times,