Arizona republican., 1901-12-04

ters has meant d startling increase.
 not merely in the aggregate of wealth,
 but in the number of very large Indi-
 vidual. and especially of very large corporate fortunes. The creation of
 these great corporate fortunes has not
 been due to the tariff nor to any other
 governmental action, but to natural
 causes in the business world operating
 in other countries as they operate in our own.
 The process has aroused much an
 tagonism, a great part of which is wholly without warrant. It is not true that as the rich have grown richer the poor have grown poorer. On the con tTary, never before has the aVerag ge man. the wage-worker. the farmer. the small trader. been so well off as in this
 country and at the present time. There have been abuses connected with the accumula ton of wealth, yet it remains
 true that a fortune accumulated in legitimate business can be accumulated by the person specially benefited only
 on condition of conferring immense in cidental benefits upon others. Sue cessful 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.
 CHANGED CONDITIONS. The captains of industry who have
 driven the railway systems across this continent. who have built up our com-
 merce, who have developed our manu- faotures, have on the whole done great
 good to our people. Without them the
 material development of which We are
 so justly proud could never have taken
 place. Moreover. We should recognize
 the immense importance to this ma
 terial development Of leaving as un-
 hampered as is compatible with the
 public good the strong and forceful
 men upon whom the success of busi-
 ness operations inevitably rests. The
 slightest study of business conditions
 will satisfy any one capable of forming
 9 judgment that the personal equation
 is the most important factor in busi-
 ness operation; that the business abil-
 ity of the man at the head of any busi-
 ness concern. big or little. is usually
 the factor which fixes the gulf between
 striking success and hopeless failure.
 An additional reason for caution. in
 dealing with corporations is to be
 found in the international commercial
 conditions of today. The same busi-
 ness conditions which have produced the great agSregaticns of corporate and individual wealth have made them very potent factors in international cornmer- cial competition. Business concerns
 which have the largest means at their disposal and are managed by the ablest men are naturally those which take the lead in the strife for commercial su- premaCy among the nations of the world. America has only just begun to assume that commanding position in the international business world which we believe will more and more be hers. It is of the utmost importance that this
 aH.f d time when the overflowing abundance of our natural resources and the skill business energy and mechanical apti- tude of our people make foreign mar kets essential. Under such conditions it would be most unwise to cramp or to fetter the youthful strength of our nation.
 Moreover. it cannot too often be pointed out that to strike with ignor- ant 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 underlies all others-is that. on the whole, and in the long run. we shall go up or down together. There are eX- captions; and in times of prosperity 1 some will prosper far more, and in l times of diversity some will suffer far | more, than others; but speaking gen orally. q period of good times means | that all share more or less in them. | and in a period of hard times all feel | the stress to a greater or less degree | It surely ought not to be necessary to ] enter into any proof of this statement; | the memory of the lean years which | began in 1893 is till vivid, and We can | contrast them with the conditions in | this very year which is now closing. | Disaster to great business enterprises can never have it's effects limited to the | men at the top. It spreads through | out. and while it is bad for everybody, | it is worst for those farthest down. The capitalist may be shorn of his lux uries: but the wage-worker may be deprived of even bare necessities.
 DELICATE MACHINERY.
 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. Many of those who have made it their voca- ton to denounce the great industrial which are popularly, al though with technical inaccuracy, known as trusts" appeal especially to hatred and fear. These are precisely he two emotions. particularly when ,ombined with ignorance. which unfit men for the exercise of cool and steady judgment. In facing new industrial conditions, the whole history of the world shows that legislation will be both unwise and ineffective unless after calm inquiry and 'ober self-restraint. Much of the legis- ation directed at the trusts would have been exceedingly mischievous had it not also been entirely ineffective. In accordance with a well-known socio- ogical law, the ignorant or reckless igitator has been the really effective friend of the evils which he has been nominally opposing. In dealing with business interests, for the government o undertake by crude and ill-consider- d legislation to do what may turn out O be bad, would be to incur the risk ,f such far-reaching national disaster hat it would be preferab ble to under ake nothing at all. The men who demand the impossible or the undesir- lble serve as the allies of the forces -s.I,4