The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1899-09-22
The Chicago Trust Conference.


week, though developing nothing new,
may prove Of infinite good by the more
intensely focusing public attention on
the conditions which surround and are
closing down on the people. The prom
nent speakers agreed OH one important
point; that is, on publicity of the business
Of all corporations. One of the star
speakers at the conference was Bourke
Cochran, who was against municipal
ownership of natural monopolies, but in
favor ofpublic or government supervision.
If rigid government supervision is adopt
ed it will not be long time till public
opinion will demand public ownership,
and the corporations would make but
feeble resistance when their means of
extortion and fleeing the public were
cut off. The pith and kernel of Mr.
Sochran's address is centered in the fol-
lowing paragraph:
There are many grave questions to be
considered before a municipal ownership
could be reduced TO practical operation,
even though we would now set about the
task. There are questions, for instance,
as to the rate of valuation. Would we
take them at what it would cost to repro
duce them, or at their earning power
If you say that you will take them at
their earning power, tell you. you would
have rather doubtful speculation 1t is
doubtful if you could take them, if the
government could take them, capitalized
at Their present rates, and make them pay
If you take them at what it would cost to
reproduce them, you are brought face to
face with the question as to whether you
have any right after the State stood by
and encouraged the original holders of
these franchises, to sell the capital which
was issued upon them to innocent
holders at the value that might be put
upon its earning power, and then take it
back from them on different valuation"
The question of valuation is, in our
opinion, very plain common sense one
and readily determined. The only prop
erty trust or corporation operating a
natural monopoly, such as railroad or
telegraph, is its plant, what the company
has bought and paid for, what it has ex-
pended its capital to produce. Just what
it would cost to reproduce it, or duplicate
it, would be its value according to the
laws of trade. The franchise which makes
all natural monopolies valuable, belongs
to the public which has given the corpora
ton permission to use it. The grantor of
this franchise has not been debarred from
granting similar privilege to another
company, nor withheld the right to re-
claim that privilege whenever public
interest demands it. The right to reclaim
the franchise is the right of eminent
domain-which is right to safeguard
the people that cannot be given away or
disposed of beyond reclamation.
Ifthe franchise is eliminated from the
question of purchase, the matter of gov
| eminent ownership becomes very simple
have been issued and sold by the conf
pany based on the earnings or dividends
and interest exhibited by the company,
which are often fraudulent and fictitious
People have taken the risk in investing in
| such securities and must abide by it. They
have lost millions by companies being
forced into bankruptcy and being bought
up by other competing companies at a
fraction of what they have been capital
| lied at.
The innocent holders" were never
looked after by the state, and this plea Of
Mr. Cochran in favor of selling to the
public what has been given in trust for
the public benefit, is sheer sophistry.
The actual capital invested by the COM
pany, or what the plant represents, can
be duplicated for is very readily ascer-
tanned, and distribution struck among
the stockholders, is fair business tran
saction, or would be, in government
taking possession of its natural monop-
olies. There is no mystifcation about the
matter as Mr.. Cochran attempts to shroud
it i'll. 1t is rule by which business is
being transacted every day, and as sim
pie as A B c. Corporation lawyers like
Bourke Cochran endeavor to raise scare
crows over municipal and government
ownership of natural monopolies, but
there are not 'msny grave questions to
be considered" at all. They have all
been considered and reduced to practice
long ago.