The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-02-03

try to prevent the organization or per-
petuation Of dishonest corporations. It
should bring them under the surveillance
of the courts, precisely as national
bank would be brought, If such condi-
ton should be shown in it's affairs.
Vast Growth OF Corporations.
In 1900 the corporate property of the
country was valued at twenty-three bill
lions. or four billions more than all the
agricultural property of the land. In the
last quarter of century the population
of our country has been transferred from
the farm to the city. Counting three to
the family, 36,000,000 Of our people are
engaged in mechanical pursuits and direct
employees Of corporations. The corpora
ton serves your every need. Yet it has
never made single provision to engage
In 1t the wage Garner or the man OF small
means The immense increase in our
| bank deposits shows what is becoming
| of our small capital. This growth in our
| uninvested wealth has been 500 per cent
| in the twenty five years, while the wealth
| per capita has only grown 10 per cent.
This means that the Individual proprietor
| has disappeared. He has withdrawn his
money from business and put it in the
bank, where it is loaned out again, usual
| y to the corporations which do the bust
ness, In bonds or otherwise.
! That Is a danger symptom. No repub-
lie has ever lived where the active pro-
prtetorship Of the country is not diver
| sfied. 1t Is the American instinct to be
an independent owner. That instinct set
tied our lands. Let it disappear and the
| safest bulwark Of our republican insti-
tutions would be wiped out.
Remedies Suggested. .,
Judge Grosscup then discussed the
remedy. ANY movement must have
behind it public conviction, and he
NHf ,1zS Il t1I ets, {opS +
Of means. We must deal with corpor-
ations as the necessary means of hold
ing wealth. not treat them as mad
dogs. He suggested:
| Require that capitalization shall be rea-
sonably equal to assets paid in, and SO do
away with fictitious values Reduce the
system to absolute simplicity. Let each
man who takes a share in a corporation
| be put on the ground floor. There is no
reason why he should be put up in the
attic. Then there should be an intelligent
| superintendent entire exposure OF Its
| business, but supervision by the court OF
officers Of the government-to protect
them from dangerous operations. Each
OF these plans would increase the conf
dence of the people in the corporations
People are not afraid of the corporation
but of the curtain between them and ths
corporation. Make, corporations the Opel
door to individual opportunity, and the
men will come. ii. : s'' .t =
! I believe our prosperity is to continue
We are making machinery for the world
| Our commerce goes to every port. Oul
political power has grown at a like won
, derful pace. Our flag is carried to the
, orient But without heart and a belle
: in our equality, all this power is bu
| pomp and circumstance. What shall i
profit our country If it gain the Who'll:
world and lose it's soul?
Candidates on Parade.
:. Charles HUM, president Of the club
. who presided as POSTMASTER, thei
= called out the candidates for governor
: Frank M. Eddy was the first one, ane
, he gave his Minneapolis friends some
: good-natured digs. He said 1t was rec
I I ognized in the country that while pc
4 liticaf schemes center In st. Paul, Min
e neapolis is the center of the pOlitica
e intellectually of the state. Mime
/ apolis politicians always get what the!
= go after, except what they want them
e selves" He said he believed the PEG
= pie generally were Indifferent to tn
8 matter of candidates. and that Their
d were many men in every city VIII
r would make good governors.
g Robert G. Dunn, who was next calle'
on, responded to the friendly greeting
given him as he rose to speak, an
, then read a short speech. He declare
~ that the republican party always stoo
- for the greatest good to the creates
~ number. He believed President Roose
Il welt would head the nation for anothe
o four years at least. Many thousan
h democrats were ready to support hin
e but that should not initiate agains
r him, being only an additional guarar
lie tee of his popularity. We need NOR
Of men of the Roosevelt stamp.
. Byrnes Sounds q Warning.
r Chairman HUM then called on Til
le Byrnes, who first Endorsed the speec
y of Judge GrosscuD, declaring his b.
% lief that those principles incorporate
into the republican platform woul
49, save the party. He then waxed ea
Of nest, and declared that great corpora
~ tons must learn that the day of blu!
va ing legislatures Is, passed. There al
I'd men in our last" legislature, and
ne those of all the western states, WI
o. have been in the employ Of corpor;
i'd tons, and have not represented I'll
d. people. He eulogized President Roos
welt as the greatest man in Amerit
ri since Lincoln, and said he had mao
es honesty in public life fashionabl
a. There are men in Minnesota to-day
at at he said, "who have undertaken to vi
all'i derminee Roosevelt, and they are a.
=. vocating no instructions for our del
~ gates. 1t is time for us who are h
40 friends to say that we will not on
1T send men who are instructed, but me
nj who are at heart with Rooseve
rs. There is a fight ahead Of us. III
great noneyed interests are again
Roosevelt, and they will spend gre
sums Of money to beat him..
en- -.
I'm Collins wants Instructions.
.s. Judge Collins had not expected
ev be present, and was not on the pr
M gram, but was called on.
ed after all these eloquent speake
ey who have preceded me-" said t
judge, Il feel like the man wi
EN- stayed out all night playing poke
"a At breakfast he told his little daug
"a ter that he had been sitting up wi
In a sick friend. Wasn't that good
So YOU she said. did you battle I
rs head? NO., I didn't Did you he
IN his hand?' No. but wish I had.
Of The judge then said that t
as republican party first grew out of
he encroachments of the slave pow
be- and he had been impressed with t
ra- danger that corporation power wol
zen secure control of the republican pal
Al- and destroy it, as slavery did the wi
:. party. He believed the party Y
rs strong enough to throw off this inf
oPo ence, but it must not hesitate to gra
,,1d pie with the problem. Speaking
President Roosevelt, he said that if
. were possible to beat him in the &C