Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-12-06

legitimate business can be accumuat.
ed by the person specially benefited
only on condition of comforting i'm.
mense incidental benefits upon 9th.
ers. Successful enterprise of the type
which benefits all mankind can only
exist if the conditions are such as to
offer great prizes as the rewards of
success.
Reasons For Caution.
The president adds that there are
many reasons for caution in dealing
with corporations. He says:
The same business conditions which
have produced the great aggregations
of corporate and individual wealth
have made them very potent factors in
international commercial competition.
Moreover, it cannot too often be
pointed out that to strike with ignorant
violence at the interests of one set of
men almost inevitably endangers the
interests of all. The fundamental rule
in our national life--the rule which I'M
derlies all others-is that, on the whole
and in the long run, we shall go up or
down together.
The mechanism of modern business
is so delicate that extreme care must
be taken not to interfere with. it in
a spirit of rashness or ignorance. In
dealing with business interests. for
the government to undertake by crude
and i'll considered legislation to do
what may turn out to be bad, would
be to incur the risk of such farreach-
ing national disaster that it would be
preferable to undertake nothing at all.
The men who demand the impossible
or the undesirable serve as the allies
of the forces with which they are NOM
inally at war, for they hamper those
who would endcavor to find out in ra-
tional fashion what the wrongs really
are and to what extent and in what
manner it is practicable to apply rene
dies.
How to Correct the Evils.
All this is true and yet it is also
true that there are real and grave evils,
one of the chief being overcapitaliZa-
ton because of its many baleful con-
sequences. and a rcsolutc and practical
evils.
1t is no limitation upon property
rights or freedom of contract to re-
Quire that when men receive from gov
eminent the privilege of doing bust
ness under corporate form, which frees
them from individual responsibility
and enables them to call into their en-
terprises the capital of the public, they
shall do so upon absolutely truthful
representations as to the value of the
property in which the capital is to be
invested. Corporations engaged in in
| terstate commerce should be regulated
if they are found to exercise a license
working to the public injury. 1t should
be as much the aim of those who seek
| for social betterment to rid the bust
ness world of crimes of cunning as tc
rid the entire body. polite of crimes OF
violence. Great corporations exist only
because they are created and safe
| guarded by our institutions, and it Is
therefore our right and our duty tC
| these institutions.
Publicity the First Essential.
The first essential in determining
how to deal with the great industrial
| combinations is knowledge of the facts
publicity. In the interest of the pub
lie the government should have the
right to inspect and examine the work
| ings of the great corporations engage
| in interstate business Publicity is the
only sure remedy which we can now
| invoke. What further remedies are
needed in the way of governmental
regulation or taxation can only be de
termined after publicity has been oh
tanned by process of law and in the
course of administration. The frs
requisite is knowledge, full and com
plete-knowledge which may be mad,