Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-05-03

# daV ire the righteous men ~ acuVc III Ill III SOouAaA
- affairs of the world-that is, in farming, manufacturing,
trade, the professions and politics.
These are the men who, BEING RIGHTEOUS, can best mhu-
ence the people to piety justice and righteousness These are the
men who, being themselves unrighteous, may DRAG The fEV-
PIE DOWN toward depravty and sin.
The recluse and the religionist who separates his religion from
conduct arc losing their hold on civilized men, and the only ethics that
command respect are the ethics that GUIDE AND CONTROL
men in the intensest labors and struggles of the actual world.
IT is no wonder that the ethics of corporation management are in
some respects indeterminate and are, therefore, an urgent subject of
public discussion, for the invention of the business corporation itself
is hardly more than fifty years old, and this new creation deals with
FORMS OF PROPERTY which are highly novel;
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Is # anv wonder that the ethics of modern business ARE NOT
YET FORMALLY SETTLED? The ethical conventions gradually
agreed upon during centuries concerning transactions inrthe ancient
form of property have had to be extended and adapted to immense
new forms of property and new processes of production AND DIS
TRIBUTION.
Its also true that directors and managers of corporations need to
be convinced that corporations have souls which may be lost by just
such conduct IS would cause the loss of one mans soul and that the
question, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose
his own soul ~ APPLIES TO CORPORATIONS.
At any stage of any corporate business the questions of capitalza-
ton and overcapitalization may come u, and if new capital is sought
at a period when industries are active and the public is sanguine
directors or managers WILL BE TEMPTED to overcapitalization.
SECRECY AS REGARDS EARNING POWER MAY GIVE oPPoR-
TUNITIEs FOR DECEPTION AND SUBSEQUENT DISASTER.
There are two aspects of overcaphaization which demand the at
tention of the public. In the first place, the several states of the Union
have power to prevent the issue of stock not fully paid for if they see
fit to exercise that power.
As a fact legislation on this subject is not uniform, and THE
STATES REALLY COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER for the
taxes which may be derived from corporations established within their
respective borders. The looser states compete with the stricter by
making their laws as little restrictive for the corporations a possible
and leaving the investing public to take care of itself.
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This demorahzng competition is, to say the least, an abandon
ment by some states of their true position AS MORAL TEACHERS.
Again, overcapiaization is an evil because of its effect on the
state of mind Of wage earners. REASONABLE wage earners are
content to have ingenuity, skill and knowledge in discovering re-
sources and organizing industries reap a considerable immediate re-
ward in the case of new undertakings, because they realize that the
laboring classes, in common with the entire community, reap advan-
tages from all successful industrial undertakings.
But they are never willing that established industries should issue
either bonds Or stock which are not fully paid for, because t~heytbeheve
that the wage earners can in that way be compelled forfall time to
earn NOT ONLY THEIR w WAGES, but dividends on a
stock, part of which represents neither money invested nor any contri-
button of human skill and labor.
THE ALLEGED DECENTRALIZATION OF A LARGE PRoPoR-
TloN OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES MANAGED BY CORPORATIONS Is
ONE OF THE MAIN CAUSES OF THE EXISTING INDUSTRIAL UN.
REST