The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-02
MONDAY, MAY 2, 1904.
NO MORE GENERALIZATION.

1t is natural and proper that the or
stand for a national corporation law.
Hence we are not surprised to find it
advocated heartily by both the Mime
apolis Tribune and the Minneapolis
Times. They are speaking for the
party which they represent; the party
OF concentration, of Capitalization, of
the absorption of the state by the fed
eral government.
Not so does it appear to us. The
first serious proposal for a federal con-
troll Of corporations was made publicly
by President Roosevelt, and fits in well
with his imperiaIistic ideas. 1t will be
a joyful and a historically logical task
for the Democratic party to oppose to
this gigantic proposition for CONSOLE
dating all governmental power and
crushing out local independence and
individual initiative. the traditional
plea of the partys founders and the
great representatives Of popular lib
efty and local autonomy.
If liberty in this country is to endure.
we must get back once more to the
theory of local self government; to the
strictest limitation of federal power to
the necessary sphere of its operation,
to rigid application of the rule that
the central government shall exercise
only those powers which cannot be fit
ly exercised by the state. We cannot
Imagine more sweeping destruction
of popular liberty than would come
from vesting the absolute control of
practically the entire business inter-
ests of this country in the federal gov
eminent, by which is meant, when the
fiction of these words is swept away.
that the party in power shall be au-
thorized by national law to wreck or
TO bride at its pleasure every corporate
institution in the country, including it's
entire business interests. according TO
the party's pleasure. No such despotic
power exists anywhere on the face of
the earth. None such could be granted
without the instant disappearance of
liberty and government and the
substitution therefor of an absolute
despotism tempered only by Doodle and
graft.
There is no necessity whatever for
any such immense extension of federal
power. There is not a hint of pro-
priety in the suggestion. Every sane
man knows today that there exists al
ready an ample power to deal effective
~ with every corporation, combina-
ton Or monopoly that affects Injurious
ly the public interest. AS to railroad
corporations, the case is plain. Every
state can enforce reasonable freight
and passenger rates by the exercise of
an established right, and the federal
government has the same power with
regard to interstate commerce. Naver
at any moment since this government
was founded were the people So thor
oughly protected as they are by the
laws regulating railroad traffic as in
terpreted and expanded by the deci-
sions of all the courts.
All other corporations chartered by
a state fall within two classes. Either
they do business entirely within the
boundaries of state. in which case
federal law can have and ought to have
no point of contact with them: or
they do business among the several
states, In which case federal law as
1t already exists has all the power that
1t is either proper or desirable that 1t
should have. For instance, the coal
trust consists of corporations acting
under the authority of particular
state; yet we know that the coal trust
is completely at the mercy of the fed