The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-07
JAS, H, ECKELS TALKS ABOUT LAWMAKERS They Should Not Attempt to Control Private Business A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT He Tells New York State Bankers That Present Agitation for Gov
 ernmentaI Control Leads Di-
 rectly to Socialism.
A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT

New York, December 6.-The annual
 banquet of the New York city group of
 the New York State Bankers association
 was held tonight at the Waldorf-Astoria. Nearly 400 bankers were present. Among
 the guests were: Joseph H. Choate, Alfred | H. Curtis, president of the New York State Bankers association; James H. | Eckles, Hamilton Fish, president of the
 American Bankers associations; M. K. Jessup D. F. Kilburn, state superintend-
 ent of banking; J. P. Morgan and Will
 Ham B. Ridgely, comptroller of the cur | rency.
 | The speakers and the toasts were "In- | ternational Exchange, Joseph H. Choate; What We Owe the Bankers" Frank R.
 Lawrence; "Ethics of Banking" by the
 Rt. Rev Dr. Courtney
 James H. Eckels, former comptroller of
 the currency, responded to the toast, "The Legislative, Be It Enacted" He review l ed the recent tendency to regulate busi- ness by statute, and said that lawmakers
 no longer remain within the discharge of | legitimate functions, but have entered l upon the more hazardous and seemingly
 more inviting field of enacting a multi
 plicity of so-called business statutes, and
 the creation of innumerable commits | sions."
 | The statutes, he declared, make the municipal state or national government 1 a partner in almost every mans business | without a dollar of investment therein.
 and not infrequently with "ill adjusted
 and wholly incompetent directing agen- | cies" The statutes, said MT. Eckels, are l founded upon the curiously contradictory | theory that demonstrated success in the business world, large investment and risk of personal capital and reputation, and wide experience not only unfit an in- | dividual for the proper and wise conduct | of his own business, but deadens his
 sense of patriotism and makes him an
 enemy of the republic
 "It will not do," the speaker contended, | ito say because now and then extraordi-
 nary powers are exercised by corpora | tions, that they therefore must be un- | duly regulated or unnecessarily ha- | rassed.
 Those who are at heart advocates of | socialism," Mir Eckles continued, twill | accept further concessions along this line
 in the knowledge that their powers are | strengthened. They will not however, | be content with this. Each concession
 now granted means a harder and more | threatening struggle when the final de- | mand for that which Is their ultimate | desire is reached
 ''I am not unmindful that during a pe- | riod of great excitement and open abuses, when unrest is everywhere manifest. there 1 are more demands for reform through leg l sative action, than during the periods | of extreme quiet. l take it that one | will dispute the fact that we are in such | period now. There is underneath all of | this. undoubtedly, much justification. But | even such justification only makes more | essential the exercise of wisdom and pru- | dence and self-control. No power was ever educated into honesty through the | mere enactment of statutory measures, | and no people ever will be-"