Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-11-03

held the undividedattention of his
held the undivided attention of his
dress upon Representative Govern
ment." The doughty Wisconsin ex-
ecutive Yves introduced by Governor
White, and h rlGnSei int his sub
Ject without any long prefaces. Open
ing with a review of the remarkable
Industrial and commercial growth of
the United States since its founding
among the storms of revolution. its
development from a nation OF a few
millions to a world power with eighty
millions of people with the prospect
of a population of 800 millions at the
close of the present century. he ut
tered a note of warning based upon
the growing domination of corporate
power and the baleful influence of
corporate greed and corporate money
in the political life of the nation.
Quoting from the founders OF the
government. Washington, Jefferson,
Hamilton. Madison and others, TO
show that the only sure perpetuation
of representative government lay in
the untrammeled will OF the people OF
the government. the governor sought
" -. 49,. IL. -,n 90 thA nnnnla
was frequently thwarted and their
desires subyerted by congressional
legislation enacted. not for the people
but for corporate interests. Apropos,
he cited the interstate commerce law,
passed in 1887. to give the govern
ment authority over the railroads OF
the country. and to fix maximum tarlfi
rates. Although a decision OF the
United States supreme court mad
held the law to be defective, in that
it lacked the vital power TO fix n
enforce MANI ldtes, ana althouSh
the members of the interstate com
merce commission had besousht CON
gress to pass the necessary amend
ments to give the law life, congress
had failed to do so, although these
appeals of the commission and OF the
industrial and commercial interests
of the country had been made since
1897. The Amendment to the law
had been impossible the governor
charged. because too many OF the
representatives at Washington We're
not the representatives of the people
but of corporate interests.
Governor LaFollette said he was
not a railroad fighter, but he wanted
the railroads placed where they be
longed, as public servants not as pub
lie masters. The government had
contributed enough in land, added to
other private and public grants, to
defray the first cost of building all
the railroads in the United States
The states had depriver themselves OF
their rights, in the law of eminen
domain, to help along the building o.
railroads. on the grounds that the!
were public highways. Railroads were
natural monopolies, and he quote
from the message of President Roose
welt, who stated that it was the gov
ernment's duty to see that just rate:
were fixed and to provide a safe
speedy and inexpensive remedy fol
shippers.
The most interesting portion of the
governors address was that dealing
with his experience with reform In
Wisconsin. With a few and very briet
exceptions, he charged that the leg
largely dictated by railroad and cor
porate interests. The railroads, he
said. and their lobbyists. had written
the legislation by which they were
taxed. had practically fixed the amount
of their taxes and had selected the
public officers of the state, as we'll as
the leading members OF the mouse anu
senate. His own connection with the
political battle in Wisconsin had be
gun back in 1897, when he made an
address at the University of Chicago
on the menace of the machine. From
that time on he had addressed audi
ences through the state for seventeen
months, whenever he could find the
time, opposing the domination OF cor
porate interest and fighting for a jus,
tax law and a primary election law
which would enable the people t6
make their own nominations and pre-
VEN the domination of corporate in
terests. He told of the several re.
publican conventions at which the
party had pledged itself to the enact
ment of the laws referred to, only tt
have the pledges of the party violated
in the legislature when the proposed
i