The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-01-17
THE MORALITY OF TRUSTS.

IreSluenC ilauley, Oh ale UElYer-
slty, in recent address at the convo-
cation of Chicago University, pointed
out some of the evils of the present
day, among them the growth of trusts
and political dishonesty. He said that
imperialism meant a great change for
us that competition Is no longer the
controlling spirit Of business, but great
combinations of capital have grasped
the country, and it will be difficult to
control them. Personal morality is
higher in America than in England,
but in business and politics we are
much debased. His speech in part is
as follows
"An unusually well informed foreign
critic, Mr.. Muirhead, has recently pub
lished the opinion that the standard of
personal morality III America is deciL-
cdly higher than in England, that of
commercial morality probably a little
lower, and, and that of political moral
ity quite distinctly lower. There is
reason to think that in this view he
represents the consensus of opinion of
well informed observers on both sides
of the Atlantic. The causes for this
condition of things demand serious at
tcntion. A failure to carry into poll
tics the same kind of ethical standard
which is applied in matters of personal
morals implies as rule that there s.
something in peoples political con-
dition to whose understanding it has
not fully grown up. Such a failure
implies defect in public judgment
rather than in individual character.
1t indicates that we do not know what
virtues must be exercised for the main
tenancc of organized society as well us
we know what virtues are necessary to
harmonious living of individuals
among their neighbors.
reorganization in business, in local
politics and in natio lal politics has
brought with it an inequality of oppor-
tunity and ar unfalrness of conditions
IN which the game of life in compcti-
tive business Is giving way to trusts.
The ,own meeting has been supplant-
ed by the organized municipality. The
old federation of States, with strong
traditions of home rule, has become a
centralized nation, reaching beyond its
borders to rule over the nations less
civilized than itself.
"Under these circumstances it be-
comes impossible for the comm unity to
rest compacently in that cgotistic NOR
ality which seemed sufficient for gen
Grafton earlier. We can no longer
rely upon competition to protect the
consumers against abuse when indus
try has become so highly organized
that all production is centralized In the
control of single body. 1t is no lon
ger true, in the sense that it was fifty
years ago, ihlt each man may be left
free to manage his own business and
that the community will find its work
best done as consequence of such
freedom. Commerce aud industry are
no longer to be regulated as games
where we have nothing to do but to
applaud the most skillful player when
he wins and rest in the assurance that
his triumph is in line with the best in
terests of the community as whole.
That which was once as a game has
now become trust, not merely i'm the
superficial and accidental sense in
which the name trust is now q ,pli ed
to all large combinations of capital,
but in a profoundcr sense-as a trust
exercised on behalf Of the public,
which il is in The power of those who
control this capital to use well or ill at
their pleasure, without adequate re
straint fiom any quarter. Where COM
petition is thus become Il remote con.
tingency and where law is almost nee
essarlly inadequate unless it be made
80 strict as to forbid the good no less
than the evil in private business enter.
prise, new system Of ethics is a mat.
ter Of vital necessity for the American
people-a systen which shall treat the |
director no longer as an individual
pursuing private business of his own
and with the rest 10 resent the sugges-
tion that he should conduct it unself- |
ishly, bnt as having more responsible
ties to his stockholders, his working
men and to the consumers that pur-
chse his goods or his service. In the
absence of such an ethical advance no |
political or legal solution of the So.
called problem is likely to be estab-
lisheal.
"Until there Is fundamental reform
in the code of political ethics which
the community imposes upon its mem
bers, public trusts will be no more adj
controlled than private ones.
Nay, they are likely to be even less nd
qaately controlled, because public Of
fetal, holding his power as tool OF
ring and acknowledging no alliance
10 Standards yher than those which
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