The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-08-26

nothing whatever to do with the state
in which it is Incorporated except to get
Incorporated, and its actions may be
communities which may object very
much to the methods or Incorporation
in the state named
II do not think you can get action by
any state or action by all the states.
that will give us satisfactory control or
the trusts or big corporations, and the
result is at present that we nave
great, powerful, artificial creation, when
has no creator to which it is RESPONSE
BILE.
"Of course it is merely truism that
the corporation is the creature of the
state; that the state is sovereign. Now
1 want to make real and not noml-
nal sovereign: to have some one soVer-
eign to which the corporation snail be
really, and not nomfnally, responsible.
AT present if we pass laws nobody
can tell whether they Will amount 10
anything. Now that has two bad effects.
In the first place the corporation be-
comes Indifferent to the lawmaking
body, and, in the next place, the law
making body gets into the most per
nicious custom of passing law, not
with reference to what will be done un-
der it, but with reference to its effects
on the opinions of the voters. That is
bad thing. When any body OF law
makers passes a law not solely with
reference to whether that law will do
good or i'll, but with the knowledge that
not much will come of it, and yet that:
perhaps, the people, as whole will
likely think it was good it does not
speak we'll for the lawmakers and 1t
does not speak we'll for the people,
either. What 1 hope to see is power
given to the national legislature which
shall make the control real
1T would be an excellent thing II we
could have all the states act on some
what similar lines, SO that it would be
unnecessary for the national govern
ment to act, but all of you know per-
fectly well the states will not act on
somewhat similar lines.
Nothing has been done in the direc-
ton of intelligent dealing by the states
as a collective body with these great
you have what 1 regard as, on the
whole, excellent corporation laws.
think that most of our difficulties-here
again remember am not promising the
millennium; it is not in my power to
promise it-would be in a fair way of
solution if we had the power to put on
the national statute books and did put
on them, laws for the nation much like
those you have here on the subject OF
corporations in Massachusetts,
so you see, gentlemen, l am not ad-
vocating anything very revolutionary.
I am advocating action to prevent any
thing revolutionary. Now, if we can get
adequate control by the nation of these
corporations, then we can pass legisla-
ton which will give us the power Of
regula ton and supervision over them
If the nation had that power.
mind you, 1 should advocate as siren
uously as / knew how that that power
| should be exercised with extreme eau
ton and self-restraint. No good will
come from plunging in without having
| looked carefully ahead.
THE first thing we want is publicity
and l do not mean publicity as favor
| by some corporation l mean it as a
! right from all corporations affected by
| the law. I want publicity as to the
| essential facts in which the public has
an interest I want the knowledge
| given to the accredited representatives
| of the people of facts on which those
| representatives can, if they see fit, base
! their actions later. The publicity itself
would cure many evils. Some of these
things I have said can be done now. A
! good deal is being done now.
| LAS far as the antitrust laws go, they
| will be enforced No suit will be under
taken for the sake of seeming to under
| take it. Every suit that is undertaken
will be begun because the great lawyer
! and upright man whom we are so for
! tunate as to have as attorney general
| Mr.. Knox. believes that there is viola
| ton of the law which we can get at, and
when the suit is undertaken it won't be
| compromised, excepting on the basis
that the government wins.
| "Of course, gentlemen, no laws
| amount to anything. unless they are adj
! 1n1n1SI6rGQ honestly ana 16drloSSly. linen,
| 1 believe-I am not going to say I am
| sure of it-but 1 believe it is possible to
| frame national Legislation which shall
| give US more power than we have now,
| at any rate, over corporations doing an
interstate business. 1 cannot guarantee
that, because in the past it has more
| than once happened that We have got
| laws on the statute books which those
who made them intend to mean one
| thing, and when they came up to decis-
| ion it was found that the intention had
not been successfully put into effect
But believe that additional legislation
can be had. 1 think we have got to
make I'D our minds to the fact that
no matter what our reverence for the
! past may be, our duty to the present
| and to the future will force us to see
that more power is conferred upon the
national administration.
when the power has been conferred
| it will rest with the national govern
ment to exercise it, At present we are
going to do the best we can with straw
less bricks, but remember they are
| bound to be Strawless Finally, mer
and women of New England, men and
| women of a state that represents sc
much, that is highest and best in the
spirit of true Americanism, 1 ask yoJ
| to remember that, after all has beer
| done that can be done by governmental
action; after you have exercised you
best wisdom and exercised it in tn,
most resolute and lofty spirit; after yol
have given all the needed power to the
national government and after tina
power has been exercised in the wises
and most reSOlute fashion, it will still