The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-04

present time. There have been abuses connected with the accumulation oi wealth; yet it remains true that fortune accumulated by legitimate business may be accumulated by the people specially benefited only on condition of conferring immense incidental benefits upon others 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.
 The captains of industry who have driven the railway systems across this continent. who have built up our com. merce, who have developed our manufac- lures, have on the whole done great good to our people. Without them the mate rial development of which we are SC justly proud could never have taken place. Moreover, we should recognize the immense importance to this material development of leaving us unhampered +zs is compatible with the public good the strong and forceful men upon whom the success of business operations inevitably rests. The slightest study of business conditions will satisfy anyone capable oi 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 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 condf. tions of today. The same business condi- tions which have produced the great ag- gregations of corporate and individual wealth have made them very potent fac tors in international commercial competi- tion. 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 nations of the world. America has only just be- gun 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 position be not jeoparded, especially at a time when the overfiowing abundance of our own natural. resources and the skill. business energy, and mechanical aptitude of our people make foreign markets es- sential. Under such conditions it would be most unwise to cramp or to letter the youthful strength of our Nation.
 Memory of the Lean Years.
 Moreover, it cannot too often be point ed out that to strike with ignorant vio- lence at the interests of one set of men almost inevitably endangers the interests of all. The fundamental rule in our na- tional life-the rule which underlies all others-is that, on the whole. and in the long run, we shall go up or down togeth- CT. There are exceptions: and in times of prosperity some will prosper far more. and in times of adversity some will suffer far more, than others; but speaking gen. orally. 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 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 its effects limited to the men at the top. It spreads throughout, and while 1t is bad for everybody. it is worst for those far thest down. The capitalist 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 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 nicsl 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 gen.
 
 less undertaken after calm inquiry and with sober self-restraint Much of the legislation directed at the trusts would have been exceedingly mischievous had it not also been entirely ineffective. In accordance with a well-known sociologi- cal law, the ignorant or reckless agitator has been the really effective friend of the evils which he has been nominaIly oppos- ing.
 Legislation Detrimental.
 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 undesirable 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 which manner it is practicable to ap- ply remedies.
 All this is true and yet 1t is also true that there are real and grave evils, one of the chief being oyer-capitalization be- cause of it's many baleful consequences; and a resolute and practical effort must be made to correct these evils.
 There is widespread conviction in the minds If the American people that the great corporations known as trusts are in certain of their features and tenden- cles hurtful to the general welfare. This springs from no spirit of envy or unchar- itableness. nor lack of pride in the great industrial achievements that have placed this coutnry at the head of the nations struggling for commercial supremacy. It does not rest upon a lack of intelligent of the necessity of meeting changing and changed conditions of trade with new methods. nor upon ignorance of the fact that combination of capital in the effort to accomplish great things is necessary when the worlds progress de- mands that great things be done. It is based upon sincere conviction that com bination and concentration should be, not prohibited, but supervised and within limits controlled and in my judgment this conviction is right,
 It Is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract to require that when men receive from Government the privilege of doing business under cor porate form, which frees them from indi- vidual responsibility, and enables them to call into their enterprises the capital of the public. they shall do so upon abso-