The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-10

tons of the past few years-particulariy in those industries changed from pri- vate to corporate ownership--the men and women who previously were active own CTS. have fallen away from ownership almost altogether. The increase in the popular holding of bonds. state, munich pal and private. illustrate this trend. Such bonds are of course, property, but the thing bonded Is not. in the sense of control and ownership, the property of the bond holder. His relation to the thing bonded is that of creditor only. do not wish to be understood as decry- ing this tendency. It reveals the faith our people have in the business side of their government. and in many of the enterprises that have grown up under the governments authority. But. none the less Is 1t wit ness to the large shift taking place in the active relation of the people to the country's pfoperty--the1r shift from actual ownership and control to a place where they do nothing but furnish the means for the carrying on of what some political division of the government, or some public or private corporation. owns or controls.
 Savings Bank Dssposita
 eI have illustrated, on several occasions recently. this same tendency. in the grow
 
 stitsraons. In 1880. these deposits amount cd in aggregate to $2.25o. 900; now they have risen to nearly. or quite, $lo, o,00o, ,00o.- ooo: the great sum thus rolled up being gathered largely from the farm, the vile lage, the town, and the moderately con- ditioned people of the cities. The credit ti,us created in favor of these people is, of course, a species of property; but none the less the deposators remain lenders, the actual and beneficial ownership of the enterprises into which the capital finds it's way going directly to the bor- rowers. The lenders are the people at large. the active owners are the compa- rativc1y few people who venture In corr poration stocka
 '.As a mere fiscal or business fact I have no fault to find with these conditions. They show, unquestionably, unexampled popular prosperity. and they show as well that the people at large possess the good judgment to put their trust in trust worthy institutions. But they show. with equal certainty, that as private property changes into corporate property, the peo- pie at large are withdrawing. in increas- ing measure from active ownership in the properties of the country; and if it goes on. this nation will be no longer nation of property. owners. but will become a nation where the actual property belongs to a small majority. It is significant transformation, one without precedent, and one that we may well fear.
 ''webster once said, that in a nation where the property is owned by the few, and the political power yielded by all, the political power will soon be used to ac- quire the property. No truth ever spoken is worthy of better heed. and no time better than now to heed it. Our Republic s.A kT.. rzsrA <wE F<zs. liberty, and for private property. To acquire something, to possess 1t against all others, to have a domain ali ones own, however small, is an instinct of the American race. This 1t was, as well as love of liberty, that brought our fathers across the ocean, their sons across the mountains and ourselves into this great valley. The instinct for ownership is one of the srheritances of our blood. and private uzaperty as lisins pall onzas ek oslf. Republican institltionss To displare the old order of things. under which the ac- five ownership of the property of the country was widely distributed among the people at large would not simply ta1reaten revolution--it would be revolu- ton.
 Forerunners of Revolution.
 'sThe prevailing policy has already brought on the forerunners of just such a revolution. The people at large cannot, on present conditions, enter corporate ownership: and as individual property continues to pass more and more into corporate ownership. more than one quarter having already passed-this ex- clusion of the people will enlarge. It need not be so. The incorporation of dishonesty and air castles has brought it on. Common decency and reasonable methods in corporate organizations. by bringing corporate ownership to condi- ton where the people at large can safely re-enter will bring the cure do not ex- pect of course, that corporations can be put on a basis where the values of their shares will never change. No such stability has settled upon real estate or other forms of property. ts
 ''I do not expect that corporate shares can ever be purchased except upon the exercise of personal judgment, and sub ject to the vicissitudes of changing busi- ness conditions. Individual judgment has always been an essential to successful dealing. The American instinct for the acauirement of property asks no impos- sible guarantees. But it asks, and 1t is entitled to have, knowledge of the facts. It can see with its own eyes, the real estate or other individual property under barter; it cannot see as things now are, through the tangled meshes of indiscrim- mate corporate organization. Put. the organization of aM corporations on basis that is fixed, and above all other con- alterations, simple and movable; compel them to start on assets reasonably equal to their capital keep them subject to in- spection. as banks and trust companies are now organized and inspected; and un- certainty-not uncertainty of judgment, but uncertainty respecting the facts upon winch Judgment acts-will disappear. In this way. md in this way alone, in my judgment can this increasing class of the property of the country be brought back into the peoples ownership. In this way and in this way alone, will the govern ment be saved the scandal of putting its stamp upon enterprises that in many cases can immediately thereafter for nrosecrtion as schemes to defraud. Cleanse coruorations of the bad reputa- taon that has grown out of our present r.oIIcv- and the cure will have been ac- compllshed
 No movement in this world ever sue ceads tShaA Ia not dominated by a distinct ain, Lei the aim here be clearly kept in sfatflt. It is, above all other considera- lions. to repeopleize the industries that have gone into corporate control This means that there must be, not dnkertng or mending, but reconstrucuon- the en- tire reconstruction of what seems to be a settled policy. It means mat we must take our corporate policy from Its i've and forty masters and make of it a indenendeut poIicya not a New York pplicy. nor a New Jersey policy. nor an TIunoia rsolicv. but an American policy. When some great national party shall Eava taken m this whole subject of cor rorata consultations with the purpose in