The Washington times., 1905-08-11

mitted by certain very wealthy corpora
tions or individuals. and of the necessity
OF seeking so far as 1t can safely be
done to remedy these abuses there is
always danger lest what is said may be
misinterpreted as an attack upon men
OF means generally. Now 1t cannot too
often be repeated in a Republic like ours
that the only way by which 1t Is possi-
BILE permanently to benefit the condition
of the less able and less fortunate is so
to shape our policy that all Industrious
and efficient people who act decentiy
may be benefited; and this means, of
course, that the benefit will come even
more tc the more able and more for
tunate. If under such circumstances,
the less fortunate man is moved by envy
of his more fortunate brother to strike
at the conditions under which they have
both. though unequa1ly. prospered. he
may rest assured that while the result
may be damaging to the other map, It
will be even more damag ging to himself.
"Of course / am now speaking of
prosperity that comes under normal and
proper conditions
"In our Industrial and social system
the interests of all men are so closely
inUcrtwined that In the immense ma
jority of cases the straight-dealing man
who by ingenuity and industry benefits
himself must also benefit others. The
man of great productive capacity who
gets rich through guiding the labor of
hundreds or thousands Of other men
does so, as rule, by enabling their
labor to produce more than Il would
without his guidance. and both he and
they share in the benefit. so that even
II the share be unequal it must never
be forgotten that they too are really
benefited by his success.
"A vital factor in the success of any
enterprise is the guiding intelligence OF
the man at the top, and there is need in
the interest of ali OF us TO encourage
ra ther than to discourage the activity
of the exceptional men who guide aver
age men SO that their labor NAV result
in increased production of the kind
which is demanded at the time. Nor
nallY We help the wage-WOrker. we helm
the man of small means, b. making
conditions such that the man OF excep-
tional business ability receives an eXcep-
tional reward for that ability
But while insisting with all emphasis
upon this. il is also true thai experience
has shown that when there is gov
ernmental restraint or supervision. some
Of the exceptional men use their eneF-
gies. not in ways that are for the COM
mon good. but in ways which tel
against this common good: and that by
so doing they not only wrong smaller
and less able n1en-whether waEe-WoTk-
ers or small producers and traders-but
force other men of exceptional abilities
themselves to do what is wrong under
penalty of falling behind in The keen
race for success
There is need of legislation to strive
to meet such abuses At one time or in
one place this legislation may take the
form of factory laws and employers la
bility laws Under other conditions 1t
may take the form IF dealing with the
franchises which derive their value from
the grant Of the representative of tho
people. 1t may be aimed at the mani
fold abuses, far-reaching in their effects
which spring from overcapitalization. Or
It may be necessary to meet such condi-
tions as those with which [ am now
dealing end to strive to procure proper
supervision and regulation by the Ma
uonal Government of all great corpora
tions engaged In interstate commerce or
Going an interstate business.
What Good People Fear.
There are good people who are afraid
of each type OF legislation; and much
the same kind Of argument that is now
advanced against the effort to regulate
big corporations has been again and
again advanced against the effort to
secure proper employers liability laws
or proper factory laws with reference
10 women ana children; much the same