The age-herald., 1901-12-04

forming a judgment that the personal
 equation Is the most important factor in
 a business operation; that the business
 ability of the man at the head Of any
 business concern, big or little, Is usually l 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 condi-
 tions of today. The same business condi-
 tions which have produced the great az
 gregations of corporate and individual wealth have made them very potent fac- tors in international commercial compe- tition. 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 supremacy among the na- tionS 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 inn portance that this position be not Jeop- arded, especially at a time when the over flowing abundance of our own natural esources and the skill, business energy and mechanical aptitude of our people make foreign markets essential. Under such conditions it would be most unwise to cramp or to letter the youthful SLTcHBtH OI our
 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 underlies all others-is that. on the whole and in the long run, we shall go up or down together There are exceptions. and in times of prosperity some will prosper far more. and in times of itv xvt1l cuff for
 than others; but speaking generally, a 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 are still 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 throughout, and while it is bad for everybody, it Is worse for those farthest down. The capit alist may be shorn of his luxuries, but the wage earner may be deprived of even bare necessities.
 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 vocation to de-
 nounce the great industrial combinations,
 which are popularly, although with tech.
 nical inaccuracy, known as trusts" ap-
 peal especially to hatred and fear. These are precisely the two emotions, particu- larly when combined with ignorance
 which unfit men for the exercise of cool and steady judgment. In facing new in
 dustrial conditions the whole history of the world shows that legislation will
 generally be both unwise and ineffective
 unless undertaken after calm inquiry and
 with sober self-restraint Much of the legislation directed at the trusts would
 have been exceedingly mischievous had 1t not also been entirely ineffective. In accordance with a well-known sociologi- cal law the ignorant or restless agitator
 has been the really effective friend of the evils which he has been nominally oppos- ing In dealing with business interests for the government to undertake by crude and ill-considered legislation to do what
 may turn out to be bad, would be to in
 cur the risk of such far-reaching national disaster that 1t would be preferable to undertake nothing at all The men who demand the impossible or the undesir- ale serve as the allies of the forces with which they are nominally at war, for they hamper those who would endeavor to find out in rational fashion what the wrongs really are and to what extent and In what Indtiiier IL IS pIdcticdDie to apply remedies.
 All this is true; and yet it is also true that there are real and grave evils. one of the chief being ver-capitalization, be- cause of its many baleful consequences and a resolute and practical effort must be made to correct these evils.
 There is a widespread conviction in the minds of the American people that the great corporations known as trusts are. in certain of their features and tenden- Icies. hurtful to the general welfare This springs from no spirit of envy or un- cbaritableness, nor lack of pride in the great industrial achievements that have placed this. country at the head of the nations struggling for commercial su- premacy It does not rest upon a lack of intelligent appreciation of the necessity of meeting changing and changed condI- tions of trade ggth new methods, nor