Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-12-03

conditions WhlCh nave produced tHs
great aggregations of corporate and in
dividual wealth have made them very
potent factors in international COM
mercial competition. Business con-
Germs 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 CONNER
cial supremacy among the nations OF
the world
The mechanism of modern business Is
so delicate that extreme care must be
taken rot 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 combina-
tions which are popularity, altho with
technical inaccuracy. known as
trusts appeal especially to hatred
and fear. These are precisely the two
emotions, particularly when combined
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 viii generally be both unwises
and ineffective unless undertaken after
calm inquiry and with sober self-re-
straint. Much of the legislation directed
at the trusts would have been exceed
ingly mischievous had it not also been
entirely ineffective. In dealing with
business interests, for the government
to undertake by crude and ill-consider
ed 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.
I All this is true; and yet it is also true
that there are real and grave evils, ore
OF the chief being over-capitalization
because Of its many baleful conse-
quences; and a resolute and practical
effort must be made to correct these
evils.
There is q widespread conviction in
the minds of the American people that
the great corporations known as trusts
are in certain of their features and ten-
dencies hurtful to the general welfare.
This springs from no spirit OF envy or
uncharitableness, nor lack Of pride in
the great industrial achievements that
have placed this country at the head of
the nations struggling for commercial
supremacy. 1t does not rest upon lack
of intelligent appreciation Of the neces-
sity of meeting changing and changed
conditions of trade with new methods,
nor upon ignorance of the fact that COM
b;nation of capital in the effort to ac-
complish great things is necessary when
the worlds progress demands that great
things be DONE 1t is based upon sincere
conviction that combination and con-
centration should be. not prohibited, but
supervised and within reasonable limits
controlled; and in my judgment this
conviction is right.
1t is no limitation upon property
rights or freedom Of contract to require
that when men receive from govern
ment the privilege OF doing business un-
der corporate form, which frees them
from Individual responsibility, and en-
ables them to call into their enterprises
The capital of the public, they shall do so
|upcn absolutely truthful representa-
tions as to the value of the property in
which the capital is to be invested. Cor
rarations engaged in Interstate COM
merce should be regulated il they are
found to exercise a license working to
the public injury. It should be as much
the aim of those who seek for social bet
crimes of cunning as to rid the entire
body polite of crimes of violence. Great
corporations exist only because they are
created and safe-guarded by our insti-
tutions; and 1t is therefore our right
and our duty to see that they work in
harmony with these institutions.
Publicity Needed.
The first essential is determining how
to deal with the great industrial COM
binations is knowledge of the facts.
publicity In the interest Of the public.
the government should have the right to
inspect and examine the workings OF
the great corporations engaged in inter-
state 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 determined after
publicity has been obtained, by process
of law, and in the course OF admintstra-
ton. The first requisite is knowledge,
full and complete-knowledge which
may be made public to the world.
The large corporations, commonly
called trusts, tho organized In one state,
always do business in many states.
often doing very little business in the
state where they are incorporated.
There is utter lack OF uniformity in the
state laws about them; and as no state
has. any excessive interest in or power
over their acts, it has in practice proved
impossible to get adequate regulation
thru state action. Therefore, in the In
terest of the whole people, the nation
should, without interfering with the
power of the states in the matter itself,
also assume power Of supervision and
regulation over all corporations doing
an interstate business. This is especial
ly true where the corporation derives
portion of its wealth from the existence
Of some monopolistic element or tenden-
cy In its business. There would be no
hardship in such supervision; banks are
subject to 1t, and in their case 1t is now
accepted as a simple matter of course.
Indeed, it is probable that supervision
OF corporations by the national govern
ment need not go so far as Is now the
case with the supervision exercised over
them by so conservative a state as Mas
sachusetts, in order to produce excellent
results.
When the constitution was adopted, at
the end OF the eighteenth century, no
human wisdom could foretell the sweep
ing changes, alike in industrial and po-
litical conditions. which were to take
place at the beginning of the twentieth
century. At that time 1t was accepted
as a matter of course that the several
states were the roperauthorities to reg