Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-04-07

property, attacks prosperity, attacks
men OF wealth, as such, whether they
be good or bad, attacks corporations
whether they do well or i'll, and seeks
In spirit of ignorant rancor, to over
throw the very foundations upon which
rest our national well-being.
Face New Problems.
In consequence of the extraordinary
industrial changes OF the last half CEN
tury, and notably of the last two or
three decades, changes due mainly to
the rapidity and completely of our in
dustrial growth, we are confronted with
problems which in their present shape
were unknown to our forefathers. Our
great prosperity with it's accompany
ing concentration of population and
wealth, it's extreme specialization of
faculties, and it's development of giant
Industrial leaders. has brought much
good and some evil, and it is as fool
ish to ignore the good as willfully to
blind ourselves to the evil.
Danger in False Remedies.
The evil has been partly the ineyi-
table accompaniment of the social
can be cured neither by law nor by the
administration of the law, the only
remedy lying in the slow change of
character and economic environment.
But for portion of the evil, at least
we think that remedies can be found.
We know well the danger of false rem
edies, and we are against all violent,
radical, and unwise change. But we
believe that by proceeding slowly, yet
resolutely, with good sense and mod
Grafton, and also with a firm determin-
alton not to be swerved from our
course either by foolish clamor or by
any base or sinister influence, we can
accomplish much for the betterment
of conditions.
Great Corporations Must Be Controlled.
Nearly two years ago, speaking at
the state fair in Minnesota, said:
1T is probably true that the large
majority of the fortunes that now exist
in this country have been amassed,
not by injuring our people, but as in
cident to the comforting OF great ben
efits upon the community, aid this,
no matter what may have been the
conscious purpose of those amassing
them. There is but the scantiest JUS
LITIGATION for most of the cutlery
against the men of wealth as such !;
and it ought to be unnecessary to state
that any appeal which directly or indi-
lrectly leads to suspicion and hatred
among ourselves, which tends to limit
opportunity, and therefore to shut the
door of success against poor men of
talent, and, finally, which entails the
possibility of lawlessness and vic
llence, is an attack upon the funda
mental properties of American citizen
ship. Our interests are at bottom com
mon; in the long run we go up or &C
down together. Yet more and more is
| is evident that the state, and if neces
| sary the nation, has got to possess the
right of supervision and control as re
CARDS the great corporations which are
its creatures particularly as regards
the great business combinations which
derive portion of their Importance
| from the existence of some monopolis
| tic tendency. The right should be ex
ercised with caution and self-restraint
but it should exist so that it may be
evoked if need arises"
Need Cautious Legislation.
Last fall in speaking at Cincinnati
l said:
! The necessary supervision and con
troll, in which | firmly believe as the
1 only method of eliminating the rea