The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-11-24
Says AS Corporations Have
Secured Control, People
Have Lost It.
Where Roosevelt, Bryan and
Hearst Get Their Hold
On Public.
CONDITIONS MUST CHANGE OR
INDIVIDUAL WILL LOSE HIS
IDENTITY IN GREAT CoRPO.
RATE SYSTEM WHICH is FORM
ING.
BY Associated Press.

Kansas City, Nov. 23.-Federal
Judge Peter F. Grosscup, of Chicago,
was the guest of honor and the prin-
cipal speaker at the dinner of the
Knife and Fork Club tonight.
Judge Grosscup said: Unquestion-
ably the important position that Mr.
Hearst has obtained in the politics of
New York, and in the politics of the
country position that drew to him
enough Republican votes to enable
his ticket to divide with the Republi-
can ticket almost equally the vote of
New YOrk-iS due more than to all
other causes combined, to the relation
that the corporations of the country
are believed to bear to the people of
the country, and to Mr.. Hearst's atti-
tude on the questions that those rela-
lions raise. And out of this corpora
ton, too, Mr.. Bryan has obtained his
political power, and Mr.. Roosevelt his
foremost power and position. 1t is
important, therefore, In view especial
ly of the fact that the old party lines
in New York were almost entirely OBJ
liberated, to inquire what is this cor
pOration question? And have our
leaders, after all, put their fingers on
the real thing that has made it the
paramount issue of the times? To
answer that inquiry, we must look
conditions as they exist squarely in
the face, for it is facts, not theories,
that eventually determine the destiny
of things.
An Agricultural People.
When the civil war closed we were
still an agricultural people The pros
perity of the country was still in a
very large measure the lands of the
country. The farmers boy still lived
on the lands. Railroads there were,
but not the great railroads Of the pres
ent day; manufacturers there were,
but not the great sO-called trusts;
mercantile establishments, but not the
great department store.
Since Lees surrender to Grant, all
of this has been transformed. The
farmers boy is no longer in the coun-
try-he is in the great centerS work
ing for the corporation The clerk in
the mercantile establishment no lon
ger looks forward to an individual
career-he is the employee of a great
corporation. The towns have grown,
while individual careers in business
and labor have become almost obsO-
lete. During the period from 1865 to
1906, nearly every species of property
except land, has gone under corporate
ownership and control
Accumulation of Wealth.
1t do not complain of this; | only
put 1t before you as a fact What
wish to see alongside of this fact,
however, is the other fact-without
which Mr.. Hearst would have had no
ground on which to build his appeal
to human nature; without which Mr.
Bryan and Mr.. Roosevelt would have
20 rest their careers on other issues
the fact that the ownership and con-
troll of the property of the country,
almost as fast as it passed into cor
porate form, passed away from our
people. The causes ! am not discuss,
ing. Here again | state only the
facts. The farmer boy is still
helping his father and his brothers
raise and harvest their crops; but it
is from the machine shop that he
helps; and in those incorporated shops
he has no interest as proprietor The
merchants clerk is still selling mer-
chandise: but he remains an employee
only. The skilled workman who for
merly owned the shop in which he
worked. is succeeded by a foreman
who has never been thought of in con-
nection with proprietorship in the
trade to which he belongs. The CAPT
tai Of the country-the greatest Dor
ton of it is still the wealth of the
people at targets no longer invested
directly by its owners in the country's
industries. Accommodating in the great
money centers, the entire investible
capital of the country has become
the reservoir out of which only the
comparatively few who do own the
industries have been enabled to ac-
Quire their ownership. Resting al
most exclusively within the lands of
the few great money kings, this great
wealth, collected together from all
over the country, and still the wealth
of the people, is utilized, one day TO
promote speculation and the next to
close out the victims caught-thus
turning the wealth Of the people at
large into the continuance that en-
traps, and then skins, nearly every
American who looks upon corporate
share as thing that was expected to
appeal to his property instinct. A