The Bemidji pioneer., 1902-09-11
Official County and City Paper
SOME HORSE SENSE.

President Roosevelt have been
loaded with good common sense
upon the subject Of great corpo-
rations. It is well that the pres
ident should unbosom himself OF
SO much valuable information at
the present time, when there IS
SO much foolish talk in the news
papers about trusts and monopo-
lies, without any discriminating
reasons for their existence. The
president makes it as plain as A,
B, C, that the people themselves
have enacted the laws that are
now upon the books authorizing
the organization of corporations;
and he makes it plain that as pc
tween the state laws, each separ-
ate system of which is enacted
by it's own legislature, and con-
gressional supervision, there IS a
long reach of indefiniteness that
nothing but an amendment to the
national constitution can make
plain and certain. There is no
limit in any one Of the states to
the capital stock which corpo-
ration may issue, and it is an
open question anyway whether
the amount of capital stock is the
measure Of the evil which the
corporation will be capable OF
doing.
Either the plan proposed by
the president will have to be pur-
sued, and congress given power
to supervise and regulate the
operation of all corporations or
ganized under the laws of all the
states; or, that of the anarchist
must be adopted, and all laws
authorizing the formation Of cor
poratlons must be abolished.
Prior to the system Of corpora
ton law which has come down to
us from early English history,
there were great men who doml-
mated commerce, finance, and
even their whole nations, just as
the gigantic billion-dollar corpo-
rations of this country are now
assumed t !, threaten. History IS
full of instances of the vast con-
troll which one superior man may
exercise over his fellow men IN
almost any line Of trade or states
manship; and he would be a bold
president who would urge that
the great corporations of this
country should be abolished sim
ply because they are great, any
more than he should urge that
the Catholic church on the Bap-
tist church should be wiped out
of existence because Of the ag-
gressive character and the known
power of their priesthood.
Let some legislator stand up
in the halls of the Minnesota cap
itol and propose an act abolishing
all laws concerning corporations,
end see what would result. From
every village, from every city
and county in the state would
come a tornado of laughter, 1t not
of Indignation, and he would rank
as one of the humorists of the
age. Or, let him propose that
no creamery association shall be
allowed a capital stock Of more
than $1,000, and what a storm of
protest would come from the
agricultural interests. Or, let
him propose that no harvesting
machine company shall have a
greater capital stock than 81, ,OOo-
900, and what would become OF
the vast accumulation Of farm.
ers' credits which those concerns
have found it necessary to carry,
and in order to carry which they
must constantly enlarge their
capital by taking in new partners
as stockholders?
There are questions and ques-
tions at stake, when it comes to
the discussion of the trust ques-
ton; and Theodore Roosevelt has
gone long ways, in his New
England speeches, to make plain
~ tba oopop,o,, r,opaln that Snme-