The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-24


business enterprises. Probably the most /
serious harm resulting to US, the people OF !
moderate means, Is in harming ourselves /
by letting the dark and evil vices OF hatred /
and envy against our fellows eat into our |
''StiH there is other harm of a more evil
dent kind, and such harm it Is our clear !
duty to try TO eradicate, if possible, and in
any event to minimize. The corporations
and. therefore, those great corporations con-
tanning some tendency 10 monopoly which
we have grown to speak of rather
loosely as trusts. are the creatures of the
state, and the state not only has the right
to control them. but is in duty-bound to
control them wherever the need for such
control is shown. There is clearly a need
of supervsion-need to exercise the power
of regulating on the part of the represen-
tatives of the public, wherever. in our
own country, as at the present time bust
ness corporations become very strong
both for benefcent work, and for work that
is not always benehcent. 1t is idle to say
that there is no need for such supervision.
A sufficient warrant for 1t is 10 be found
over and over again in any of the various
evils resulting from the present system, or
rather lack of system.
COMPLICATED CONDITIONS.
There is in our country a peculiar diff
fcuIty in the way of exercising such super
vision and control because of the peculiar
division of governmental power. When
the industrial conditions were simple very
little control was needed, and no trouble
was caused by the doubt to where
power was lodged under the constitution.
Now the conditions are complicated, and
we find 1T difficult to frame national legis-
lation which shall be adequate, while, as
a matter of practical experience, State
action has proved entirely insufficient, and
in all human propabilty, cannot ana VIII
not be made sufficient to meet the needs Of
the case Some of our States have ex-
celIent laws. laws which 1T would be well.
indeed, TO have enacted by the national
| l-rr IL but he xyi1 in
these laws, even between adjacent States,
and the uncertainty of the power of en-
forcement result practically in altogether
insufficient control. 1 believe that the
nation must assume this power of con-
troll by legislation and if it becomes evil
dent that the constitution will not permit
needed legislation, then by constitutional
amendment.
The immediate need in dealing with trusts
is to place them under the real, not nomin-
al control of some sovereign, to whom,
as its creature, the trusts shall owe
( allegiance, and whose courts the soVer-
eigns orders may with certainty be en-
forced. This is not the case with the
ordinary sO-called trust to-day for the
trust is a large State corporation doing
business in other States also and, often,
with a tendency TO monopoly. SUCH a
trust is an artificial creature, not wholly
responsible to, or comfortable by any legis-
lature nor wholly subject to the jurisdlc-
ton of any one court. Some governmental
sovereign must be given full power over
these artificial and very powerful, cor
pOrate beings. In my judgement this SOW
ereign must be the national government.
When Ii has been given full power, then
this full power can be used to control any
evil influence. exactly as the government
is now using the power conferred on 1T
under the Sherman antitrust law. Even
when the full power has been conferred IT
! would be highly undesirable to attempt
! too much, or to begin by stringent legls-
/ lation. The mechanism of modern bust
ness is as delicate and complicated as it
is vast, and nothing would be more pro-
Il n fn oil If ind nl n
/ to those least well off in this worlds
/ goods, that ignorant meddling with this
| mechanism and above all, if the meddling
were done IN spirit or class or sectional
/ rancOr. 1t is desirable that this power
should be possessed by the nation, but ii
/ is quite as desirable that the power should
/ be exercised with moderation and self
| restraint. The first exercise of that power
/ should be the securing of publicity among
all great corporations doing an inter-
state business. The publicity, though non
! inquisitorial, should be real and thorough
as to all important facts with which the
] public has concern.
LIGHT DISCOURAGES EVIL.
THE full light of day is a great dis
] courager of evil. Such publicity would by
itself tend to cure the evils of which there
is just complaint. and where the alleged
evils are imaginary it would tend to show
that such was the case. When publicity is
attained it would then be possible to see
what further should be done in the way
| of regulation.
above all it behooves us to remember
not only that we ought to try to do what
| we can, but that our success in doing it
| depends very much upon our neither at
| tempting nor expecting the impossible Dis
trust the man who offers you a patent
| cure-aH Tor the evils or the body polite
| just as you would distrust him who tries
| to sell you a medicine to cure all the CAS-
| eases of your corporal bodies
q Qr6
| through the ages, sometimes a little faster,
| some times a little slower, but rarely in
deed by leaps and bounds. At times
| great crisis comes in which a great period,
perchance led by great man, can at white
heat strike some mighty blow for the right,
| make some long stride in advance along
| the path of orderly liberty and justice. But
normally we must be content if each of us
/ can do something, by no means all that we
! wish, but still something, for the advance
| ment of those principles of Righteousness
| which underie all real national greatness;
all real civilization.
Il promise of complete solution
| Tor all the problems we group together
when we speak of the trust question. But
we can make a beginning in solving these
problems and good beginning if only We
approach the subject with a sufficiency
of resolution, of honesty and of that hard
common sense which is one of the most
valuable and unfortunately not one of the
most common assets in the equipment OF
any people
Il think the national administration has
/
laws as they now stand on the statute
books without regard to persons and I think
that good has come from the enforcement
| L think, furthermore, that additional legis-
lation should be had, and can be had, which
will enable us to accomplish much more
than has been accomplished along these
same lines zone can promise you a perfect
solution, at least, in the immediate futu~ e.
but something has already been done, and
much more can be done if your peopIe fem
perately and determinedy viii that il shall
be done.
I'm conclusion, let me add one word.
While we are not to be excused If we fail
to do whatever is possible through tLe
i agency of government we must ever keen
in mind that no action by the government.
no action by any combination among our
selves can take the place of the individual
qualities TO which, in the long run each
man must owe his success There never
has been devised and there never will he
devised any law which will enable a man
to succeed save by the exercise of those
qualities which have always been the pre-
requisites of success-the qualities of la rd
work, of keen intelligence of an unfincbino
! will. No action of the State in any form
can do more than supplement the initia five
OF the individual, or ordinarily the action of
the State can do no more than secure to
each individual the chance TO show under
as favorable conditions as possible the
stuff of which he is made"
|
Carpenter Kills His Wife
OMAHA, Neb., Aug. 23.-Anton Christen-
/ sen, a carpenter emplOyed at South Oroabo