The Washington times., 1905-04-23
The Government Should
Control All Corpora
tons 1t Creates.
SOCIALlSTIC TENDENCIES
Postofflee, Police Depart
ment, and Public Schools
Indicate Such.


BUFFALO, N. Y, April 22-After
speaking before the Liberal Club to-
night, on the "Dut- and Helpfulness o.
Ideals William ]. Bryan turned his
attention to the referendum socialism,
and public ownership.
Mr.. Bryan said. in part:
Il am believer In the doctrine that
all corporations created by government
should be controlled by government
when 1t becomes necessary to protect
the people against injustice Funda-
mentally the principle is that the
people cannot, through law. create any
thing stronger than the creator.
There is line which should be
drawn between public and private cor
porations. The railroad comes under
the head OF public corporations. Some
say 1t is a quasi-public character and
1t relies ON its public character when
1t wants anything from the public, and
on Its private nature when the people
| want anything from #
Municipal Franchises.
But let me first distinguish between
what are called municipal corporations
and those corporated In large sphere.
| 1t is impossible to he-ez-eei competi-
tion between corporations 'corporated
under a municipal franchise. That is,
! you cannot have competition between
street railways, water. or light COM
panies, or telephone lines. These things
are monopolies.
| Believing a private monopoly is in
defensible and intolesable, as declared
| In the Kansas City E,lasform. / hold
that all these public Utilities should be
owned and operated by the city gov
sernment.
| Everything that government under
| takes can be considered sociaiistic In
| one sense. The PostofTice Department
is socialistic in that the state is doing
| something which only individuals used
to do. The police department is social
istic because the public Is furnishing
protection which the Individual for.
merly furnished for himself. Our pub
lie school system is described as social
| istic by some because the public fur
| nishes. through taxation, the means OF
education formerly furnished by pr,-
| vate enterprise
Il take 1t that the best place to draw
the line between that which is social
| istic and what is described as indIyid-
ualistic, is at the point where competi-
ton ceases. The socialist believes that
competition is a destructive force and
should be eliminated by the public own
ership and operating all the means OF
production and distribution.
! Competition Essential.
THE democratic position. as 1 under.
stand IT. Is. that competition IL essential
rather than injurious and should be
preserved. Wherever competition is i'm.
possible and monopoly necessary. the
fruits Of the monopoly. according te
democratic principles should be entoye6
by the whole people and not by the
privileged few.
1T Is entirely democratic. therefore
to advocate public ownership and oper
alton OF municipal franchises. The re-
cent victory in Chicago for municipa
ownership under democratic Leadership
has done much to stimulate this senti
ment.
"As to railroads. the question is n,
closer, because public opinion has no
advanced SO far. / am inclined to he
lieye that we shall have the same ex
perience with the railroads that w,
have had with the municipal corpora
tions
While there Is competition betwee,
intermediate points, the people who lty,
away from competing centers must ac
cept such terms as the railroads pre-
scribe. except where they an be regu
lated by law. The regula ion thus IA
attempted has not been successful
partly because the laws have not bee,
sufficiently stringent and partly becaus
o. the tremendous influence that tn
. railroads can exert over public ofn
Gals