The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-09-16

| exclude il from discussion. But. ladies' and
gentlemen. I will say this. IL has always
the courts show 50 much ingenuity in de-
yising injunctions to prevent corporations
from being disturbed by their employees,
they have not shown one half That IN
genuity in devising methods to prevent their
being robbed by their directors.
ITO all this. my friends. the remedy, re,
peat, Is publicity. a statute. which would
modify but slightly. if It all, The existing
laws of every State. would make this species
| of fraud impossible. and while believe that
IL Is possible that this conference may reach
a unanimous conclusion, because every ler-
son who has spoken on the suDject-the
professors of political economy from the
colleges, the masters of the Nationai
Grange-every person who has discussed the
problem has agreed that publicity is the
remedy for this species of corporate fraud
and for unfair and unjust determinations
among those who are compelled 10 use them,
what objection can there be to IL! why,
they tell you ii is private business: Never
private business when you are called on 10
discharge q trust on behalf OF those VINO
are not always at your elbow TO see how
that trust Is discharged. lA~pplause-l NO
honest man ever yet, discharging a duty Tor
another. claims the cloak of secrecy. That
Is the badge of fraud. tApplause.l
NO RIGHT TO SECRECY.
mo corporation has a right to secrecy In
the discharge of its duties. Whenever any
| person seeks to lure you up a dark alleyway
on the p~retense that he is going to serve
| YOU, QO nOl pdIlcS Will I'M "a hoi'
is a confidence man. Call a policeman If
you want to save your property or your
| character. No corporation anxious to per-
form honest services to the public and it's
stockholders will seek secrecy or will in
| sist on il.
1T is the cloak behind which all these
frauds are perpetrated. The payment. OF
interest, the false pretense OF paying divi-
dends which have not been Gained, false
pretenses about earnings. false pretenses
made up of false bookkeeping-all these are
possible while the managers of a corpora
ton have the right to close their offices In
the faces of their own shareholders and
say that this is a matter which concerns
the management.
Ladies and gentlemen. we nave but to
stockholders they have In England. as
| Professor Brooks pointed out here the first
day of the session-shall have the right TO
examine the books of a company and know
everything about its concerns, although he
owns but one share. If they find 1T too
| 500 to examine their books at leisure. then
| let them raise their shares to $1,000. or
$4,000. or $4,000. and let the minimum
books. But when they issue stock at 500
| a share or $50 a share. and any member OF
the public becomes a member and an owner
of that stock and a shareholder IN tnat
| corporation. he should have the right to
| examine those books whenever he chooses.
| And that is the law to-day If the courts
would enforce it. ~GApplause.]
I'm addition to that. every corporation
| should be compelled to file with the secre-
tary of state. when IT ORGANIZES. a sua,s.
ment of property. and then let the public
buy at any capitalization 1t chooses TO
make. Every year ii should report to some
competent authority a full sta y.ment OF Its
every State. and 1t is always evaded. The
reports are misleading where they are not
| incomprehensible. Let these reports be fair.
honest statements of their business and
then finally extend the powers of your su-
| perintendence of insurance and banking to
SSeeriHed. and then YOU viii have honest
management of corporations, and | prom
Use you that this public distrus. and hatred
| the minds of a liberty-loving people, who
| are but seeking justice. even through their
| prejudice. GApplause.l
ENvIES TEXAS RHETORIC.
Nov so much for the interference of
| government in the affairs of the citizen
and monopolies resting upon it. / have. as
you will remember. mentioned a form of in
dustrial organization which dominates the
market. not through government favor. but
through the cheapness of its product.
Against the monopoly that depends on gov
eminent. favored i'm any shape or form. 1
am as truly opposed as any gentleman
| even from Texas. [Laughter.] L confess
that l envy Texas its breezy rhetoric when
/ want to denounce anything. Laughter
but. my friends. when we come to con-
slider organization which dominates the
why. then we are face. to face with a forced
introduction which is of a radically opposite
character. Now, let us see what the OBJ
lection to that is. We are told that it de-
feats competition; but, my friends. that is
with, that any Industrial organization that
cheapens the cost of something / need, / re-
gard as a benefit. and l cannot probably
L hrfn0 oy-c 90 nrnrrnl With In orO
teri I cannot quarrel with it. even IL YOU
call ii a monopoly. ] must make this con-
fession frankly before this gathering, that
if 1 can go to a department store (Which /
believe is a form of monopoly very offensive
to some gentlemen, or to any other kind
$40, why, / would rather go there and
would go there than to a small tailor and
p tofal hi dep syU; Thi fla MAY be a and S0n agnIsmss Of
but / hope, ladies and gentlemen, you will
at least give me credit for the candor which
Il think / said at the beginning that we
must be very careful about getting excited
over words. Now. there is a word here
monopoly You will observe that 1 strict
ly avoided the word trust which was orig
inally a term of highly respectable signifi-
repute with its association with million
aires. and so. as Tar as possible. l exclude
ABB abo uie partial aiie m aenou 9iiIst''eTIe Confess n { sPed Do
not understand what that means. A partial
monopoly Is very much to me like a partial
whole. ILaughter.1 If we are TO have a
monopoly l can understand that Iaughter1,
but i cannot quite understand a partial
monopoly. But. then. you must remem,
Der that there is an economic subject and
combinations of capital have given rise TO
an extraordinary number of phrases. which
i do not claim to understand. Monopoly
is a word which suffers from a very bad
name, and deservedly so. 1t has been as
ISOLATED for ages with the very worst form
of government practice. During the whole
history of the world. until. 1 may say, this
generation, monopoly represented-rather, IL
ent. 1t meant a license to some govern
ment favorite to prey on the necessities of
the community, and the mention of the word
naturally a the Indignation of every
liberty-loving freedman. l do not believe
that there Is any single industry existing
in this country to-day that is a monopoly
in the sense in which a word can be a
word. I believe the Standard Oil Company.
which is generally considered the leading
the entire product of all Its consumers.
But / suppose q better word would be a
dominating industrial enterprise-one that
dominates the market. that leads one that
has the largest measure OF the total. L dc
not object even If you call the institution
that gives me my clothes the cheapest a
L.onopoly. l will not quarrel with the word.
j do not care which term you use as much
as / do about the clothes.
WHOLLY ILLOGICAL.
Blu IL must be borne In mind that the
gentlemen who object TO this form of dom
ipation or monopoly-call it what you will
on the ground that it destroys competition