New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-26

system OF moral education. operating alike upon
lawyers and upon layrnen and enabling us TO
make progress both in our judicial ethics ana IN
general tone OF public morality. The whole
English commercial law OF the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries with its distinctions. some
times fine drawn but always well drawn. IN
matters like agency or warranty, competence or
negligence involves systematic enforcement OF
responsibility under the forms Of freedom III
We wish TO see what this legal development has
accomplished in the way OF introducing respon-
sihility. have only 20 contrast our standards
OF practice and ethics IN those lines where com
rnercial law has been developing for centuries
with those where its application is comparative
ly new. II / sell a cow on the basis or certain
representations and those representations prove
to be false, the law holds me to an implied con-
tract Of warranty, even IL have explicitly dis
claimed any intention to warrant the animal.
If / sell railroad under similar circumstances
the law offers the sufferer no corresponding
remedy; and no small section OF the pubic ap-
plauds the seller for the shrewdness which he
has displayed in the transaction. If use an
individual position of trust to enrich myself at
the expense of others. the law will compel me
TO make restitution even where criminal intent
was absent. But If profit by similar errors in
the management OF a corporate trust. the diff
Guilty OF bringing the responsibility home is very
great indeed.
These facts and the evils connected with them
are notorious. Any improvement in these mat
tiers which shall bring the conduct of associa-
tlons-whether public or private, Of capitalists
or Of laborers-up to the same moral level which
characterizes the conduct of individuals in
wolves combined legal and moral process. The
same conception OF the duty of agents and trus-
tees which now prevails in the dealings Of indi-
viduals with one another. and constitutes part
OF standards Of morality and gentlemanly
honor, must be adopted by the courts and &C
copied by the people in dealing with the affairs
OF corporations
The law OF industrial freedom has developed
with the restraints OF competition IN view. But
It has about that in many places competi-
ton is abolished. The trust and the trade union
have no rivals, each in it's own field. Yet they
continue to act. and the law permits them to
act if they had the right to do everything
which they might do If competition existed
Thus the author points out, neither the coal
combination nor the miners union in the an
thracite strike showed the slightest recognition
OF the obligation to supply the public with coal
which incident to their character as monop-
olies Of mines and labor. They acted just as If
they were individuals who free to stop pro-
duction and let the public trade elsewhere
Their conduct suggests 'the unftness Of many
Of the persons concerned TO be relieved from the
industrial control OF competition, until some
other means Of control has been provided In its
stead"
Our great business and political problem is to
provide those new means Of control to secure
the responsibility OF under new conditions.
And the ultimate seat OF such control must be
in individual character. Men must realize their
duty to the State superior to their right act
in politics for their own selfish interests. They
must realize their duty in business to apply the
ethics of honorable personal conduct to the i'm
personal transactions of vast corporations. They
must accept the new moral responsibilities cor
relative with new extensions of power. Only as
they control their conduct and adapt their law
to that end freedom be consistent with hu-
man welfare and long endure.
President Hadley's discussion OF these themes
is throughout a high plane, worthy of him
and of the great university he represents.