The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-04-28
ITO NATIONALIST
CORPORATIONS
concluded from First Page.)

to make 1t a helpful servant TO III
uses OF mankind
eve hear on all sides of the dan
ger to the people from the great cor
porations. The paramount danger o
( the corporate policy prevailing il
America. lies not so much in wha
specific thing corporation may do
as In the fact that, in its practica
operation. that policy excludes from
participation in this already wide ant
Increasing field of American property
the ordinary American citizen as tht
owner. ! speak now, not of the cause
but of the fact. know. as we'll as
anyone, that under the law, corporate
ownership. like the ownership of real
estate, is open alike to all But
know also, as does every observer Of
events. that in the face of existing
conditions. this hast portion OF our
country's property, already more than
one-fourth in value. and probably one
half in its influence upon the citizen
ship of the country. is. as an oppor'
tunity to proprietorship, a field closed
o those not educated in the intrica-
cies OF corporate organization and
management.
The paramount aim, in any solu-
ton OF this great problem, must be to
fit this new form OF American owner
ship to the Industrial life of repub-
lie. Ours is a government OF the
people, by the people, for the people.
The policies that relate to property
must, in such government. conform
themselves to the popular instincts.
A government by the people cannot
long endure whose property laws,
either purposely or incidentally,
crate a distinctive property holding
class. | hope to see the day when
This new form of American property
will invite. and worthily invite, the
participation of all; when corporate
ownership viii be diversified as widely
among the people at large, and with
az much safety to them, as other
forms of property; when the sales
man viii aspire TO own an interest
In the incorporated mercantile com
oany: when every turn Of the wheel
of the locomotive will mean so much
increment to the interest of the engi-
neer and fireman in the cab; when
every bar pulled out of the furnace
will add a little 10 the possessions Of
the men who handle the tongs when
the clerk will be interested In the
things that lie behind the counting
house. when corporation ownership
from one end of the country to the
other. viii be safe from industrial
pirates. and even to such honest ven
ture, ON the part of ALL as gives to
the life Of the American patriotic
and conservative interest.
The first step to this end, and the
great step. is to nationalize the cor
poration. Five and forty masters now
ordain its polices II should be own
el by one master and one policy The
corporation Is no longer the sole con
Germ Of the state where It's books hap
pen to be kept, or its directors meet;
1t has become the concern OF the
whole country over which lis enter
prlses reach. The day Of the New
Jersey policy has gone, the day of the
New York policy has gone, the day
of the Iowa policy has gone. The day
has come for an American corporate
policy
Il speak for the naturalization OF
tho corporations tonight, not as the
enemy. but as the friend of property;
not as the enemy, but as the friend Of
the toiler who seeks opportunity TO
turn some portion of his earnings into
property; not as the enemy. but as
the friend OF those who. in honest cor
porate enterprise, push forward the
Increasing progress of mankind
Il speak as a Republican to Repub,
leans: but not as o mere partisan
Republican to partisan Republicans.
Some great political party must un-
dertake this project The Republican
party Mathematical human liberty. The
Republican party orphanized the nat
ional currency, thus lifting that hand
maid of commerce out Of bondage
to the states. The Republican party
laid the legislative foundation for the
rans-continental railways that hold
the Pacific slope to the Mlssippi Val
ley, and the Atlantic seaboarl. The
fourteenth amendment 10 the eofisti
tuition. that great guaranty that made
the invitlability of property and Of
contract q national concern, was put
| into the fundamental law of the Re
publican party. And it was the Repub
lican party. that in the interest OF
widely diversified ownership. opened
up the lands of the west to those har
| dy pioneers who first came into this
western country The party that car
point to all these great deeds-cvery
one in the interest Of property. but
Of property the ownership Of which
has been widely peopleized-saying
'Theseeare my children. need not fal
ter at any undertaking. or stop to In
quire from what quarter opposition
may arise