The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-09-22

and ignorance. And there can exist in
free republic no more wicked, no man
more dangerous to the people, than he
who would arouse these feelings in the
hope that they would rebound tohis own
Corporations that are handled hon
estly and fairly, SO far from being an
evil, are natural business evolution,
and make for the general prosperity Of
our land. We do not wish to destroy
corporations. We wish to make them
subserve the public good. All individ
uals. rich or poor, private or corporate,
must be subject to the law of the land,
and the government will hold them to a
corporation, like the humblest private
citizen, must be held to strict COM
pliance with the will of the people. as
expressed in the fundamental law. The
rich man who does not see that this Is
In his interest is indeed shortsighted
When we make him obey the law we in
sure for him the absolute protection of
the law.
BANK SUPERVISION.
1.-THE savings banks show what can
be done in the way of genuinely bene-
ficent. work by large corporations when
intelligently administered and super
vised- They now hold over $500. 900 900
of the peoples money, and pay annually
their depositors. There is no talk of
danger from these corporations, yet
they possess great power holding over
three times the amount of the present
national debt. more than all the cur
rency, gold, silver, green backs, etc, in
circulation in the United States. The
chief reason for there being no talk
Of danger from them is that they are.
on the whole, faithfully administered for
tire benefit of all, under wise laws
~ full
ton of their condition. and which pre-
scribe certain needful regulations, with
which they have to comply, while at the
same time giving full scope for the best
enterprise of their managers within
these limits.
Now. of course. savings banks are
as highly specialized a class of corpora
tons as railroads, and we can not force
too far the analogy with other corpora
tons: but there are certain conditions
which I think we can lay down as in
dispensable to the proper treatment of
all corporations which from their size
have become important factors in the
social DEVELOPMENT of the community.
Before speaking, however. of what can
be done by way of remedy, let me say
word or two as to certain proposed
remedies which in my judgment would
be ineffective or mischievous. The first
thing to remember is that if we are to
accomplish any good at all it must be
by reSo1utely keeping in mind the in
tention to do away with any evil in the
conduct of big corporations while stead
fastly refusing to assent to indiscrimi-
nate assault upon all forms of corpo
rate capital as such. The line of de-
narration we draw must always be on
conduct, not on wealth: our objection
to any given corpora ton must be. not
thatit is big, but that it behaves badly.
Demagogic denunciation of wealth is
never wholesome, and generally danger
Gus; and not few of the proposed meth
L.
chiefly because all sincere advocacy OF
the impossible is dangerous.
ut is an unhealthy thing for a COM
munity when the appeal is made to fol.
low course which those who make the
appeal either do not or ought to know
Fcan not be followed: and which. if fol.
lowed, would result in disaster to every
body. Loose talk about destroying mo-
how the monopoly should even be de-
fined offers case in point. Nor can we
afford to tolerate any proposal which
will strike at the so-ca11ed trusts only
by striking at the general well being
We are now enjoying a period of great
prosperity. This prosperity is generally
diffused through all. sections and
through all classes Doubtless there are
some individuals who do not get enough
of 1t. and there are others who get toe
much. But this is simply another way
of saying that the wisdom of mankind
is finite: that even the best human
system can not work perfectly. The
men who propose to get rid of the evils
of the trusts by measures which will dc
away with this general well being ad.
vocate a policy which would not only
be damage to the community as q
whole, but which would defeat its owr
professed object.
IF we are forced to the alternative
of choosing system under which mos
of us prosper somewhat, though a few
OF us prosper too much. or else a sys-
q vIyh ri
enough, why, of course, we will choose
the former. If the policy advocated 1,
so revolutionary and destructive as tt
involve the whole community in thu
crash of common disaster it is as Ger.
tain as anything can be that when ths
disaster has occurred all efforts to reg.
ulate the trusts will cease, and that ths
one extreme will be to restore pros
perity.
TARIFF REDUCTION.
"a remedy much advocated at the
moment is to take off the tariff from al
articles which are made by trusts Tc
do this 1t will be necessary first to de-
fine trusts The language commons
used by the advocates of the method
implies that thew mean all articles
made by large corporations. and that
the changes in tariff are to be made
with punitive intent toward these large
corporations. OF course. If the tariff
is to be changed in order to punish
them, it should be changed so as te
punish those that do i'll, not merely
those that are prosperous. 1t would
neither be just nor expedient to punish
the big corporations as big corpora
tions; what we wish to do is to protect
the people from any evil that may grow
out of their existence of ma1administra.
ton. Some OF these corporations dc
well and other do i'll. If in any case the
tariff is found to foster a monopoly
which does Ill. why. of course. no pro-
tectionist would object to a modfdca-
ton of the tariff sufficient to remedy
the evil. But in very few cases does the
so-called trust really monopolize the
market. Take any very big CORPORA.
| tons which controls. say, something
over half the products of given indus
try.
Surely, in rearranging the schedules
affecting such a big corporation 1,
would be necessary to consider the in
terests of its smaller competitors, which
control the remaining part, and which
being weaker. would suffer most from
any tariff designed to punish all the
producers; for, of course. the tariff mus
be made light or heavy for big and lit.
corporation necessarily employs very
many thousands of workmen. and the
minute we proceeded from denunciatior
to action it would be necessary to con.
slider the interests of these workmen
Furthermore, the products of many
trusts are unprotected and would be en-.
tirely unaffected by any change in the
standard Oil company offers a case IL
point, and the corporations which con.
troll the anthracite coal output offer an.
other-for there is no duty whatever or
anthracite coal. am not discussins
the question Of the tariff as such. wheth