The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1901-12-04

these great corporate fortunes has
not been due to the tariff nor to any
other governmental action, but to
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. 1t is not
true that as the rich have grown
richer the poor have grown poorer. On
the contrary, never before has the
average man, the wage Garner, the
farmer, the small trader, been so we'll
off as in this country and at the pres
ent time. There have been abuses
connected with the accumulation Of
wealth, yet it remains true that for
tune accumulated in legitimate busi-
ness can be accumulated by the per-
son specially benefited only on condi-
tion of comforting immense incidental
benefits upon others. Successful en-
terprlse Of the tyre which benefits
all mankind can only exist if the con
ditions are such as to offer great
prizes as the rewards of success.
Reasons Fov 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 ag.
gregations of corporate and individ-
ual wealth have made them very po-
tent factors in international CONNER
cial competition.
Moreover, it can not too often be
pointed out that to strike with ignor-
ant violence at the interests of one
set of men almost inevitably endan-
gers the interests of all. The funda-
mental 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.
The mechanism of modern business
is so delicate that extreme care must
be .aken not to interfree with it in
a spirit Of rashness or ignorance. 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 incur the risk of such
far reaching national disaster that it
would be preferable to undertake
nothing at all. The men who demand
tho impossible or the undesirable
serve as the allies of the forces with
which they are nominally at war, for
they hamper those who would en-
deavor to find out in rational fashion
what the wrongs really are and to
what extent and in what manner it
is practicable to apply remedies.
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 overcap-
italization because of it's many bale
| ful consequences, and a resolute and
practical effort must be made to cor.
rect these evils.
1t is no limitation upon property
rights or freedom Of contract to re.
qulre that when men receive from
government the privilege of doing
business under corporate form, which
frees them from individual responsi.
bility and enables them to call into
their enterprises the capital of the
public, they shall do so upon abso.
lutely truthful representations as to
the valute of the property in which
the capital is to be invested. Corpor
ations engaged in interstate com
merce 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
to rid the entire body polite ol
crimes Of violence. Great corpora
tions exist only because they are
created and safeguarded by our in
stitutions, and it is therefore our right
and our duty to see that they worl
in harmony with these institutions.
Publicity the First Essential.
The first essential in determining
how to deal with the great industria
combinations is knowledge of tn,
facts-publicity. In the interest O
the public the government SHOULD
have the right to inspect and exam
inc the workings Of the great corpor
ations engaged in interstate business
Publicity is the only sure remed,
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