Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-18
PLEADS FOR THE RICH
CHANCELLOR DAY .DENoUNCES
MOVEMENT FOR CONTROL.

NEW YORK, December 1S.-Chancellor
Day of Syracuse University, whose cham
pionship of Mr.. Rockefeller and the Stand
ard Oil Company was widely-quoted con-
tribution to current political discussion
continues to denounce warmly the move
ment for legislative control of aggrega-
tons of wealth.
This movement he terms millionaire
phobia' in the forthcoming issue of Les
lies Weekly, and says:
For some time we have been in the grip
of this mighty spasm over corporate wealth
and swollen fortunes. These current
phrases are from high sources. All of our
national Ills are being stated in this for
mula: Down with the rich. Puncture the
swollen fortunes. Make the rich poor and
all the poor will be rich. Destroy the cor
porations; hamper them; obstruct them;
sue them in the courts; assail them in the
press; tie the strings of the Lilliputians to
them in Congress and bind them and the
individual can have a chance
Make the returns of great businesses
sufficiently small and uncertain by petty
shall not be troubled by the genius of
Rockefeller, a HILL a Morgan, Carnegie,
an Armour or Swift. The little man will
be big enough for the little things remain
ing to be done. 1t is a crime for several
men to have developed the power of giving
employment to 10000 or 10000 men"
Fortunes are not the only things that
have swollen, he declares but salaries and
wages as well, while hours of labor have
shrunk, which is another way of swelling
wages.
He says that the men who would reduce
these fortunes had nothing to do with
swelling them and could not manage them
if they had them; that those who are chat
tering about predatory wealth would not
refuse to take over corporation stock even
in Rockefeller proportions. Destructive
regulation should be preceded by govern
ment ownership, then If the government
owned the property it is proposed to super
wise I'VE can take the consequences of our
laundering"
He adds:
probably no men in this country are
more disqualified for the control and super
vision of the corporations or swollen for
tunes than the majority of legislators. Any
proposition from that source to supervise
and control the wealth of the land is a
gigantic piece OF impertinence that to COM
ing generations will be incredible.
Courts of justice" continues the chan
cellor, "are dragooned into subserviency
to executive authority. men being con-
demned without conviction and told to
clear themselves after they are condemned
if they want mercy. Commerce, traffic,
transportation and manufacture are placed
under espionage and hailed before the
courts and threatened with regulation by
socialistic law until men no longer know
what property is or the rights of business
as once interpreted by those principles
WHICH were SuppoSeu 10 nave Deen eSldU-
lished by the wisdom of the centuries.
II predict" he says in conclusion that
we are passing through epoch that will
stand in future times to our everlasting dis
grace and shame. We phenOmenally
blessed by Providence We are steadied by
the calm confidence and signal ability of
the greatest men ever known in the COM
mercial world. But if this mania continues
it is not far on to a crash that will carry
down all confidence, confuse all property
rights, block the wheels of all progress and
wreck not only the mllionaire's fortune,
but the laborer's cottage. The demand of
the hour is the control of the controller.
Swollen fortunes are a thousand-foId less
dangerous to our land and people than
swollen demagogy."