Daily Kennebec journal., 1906-09-06

Bath, Me-, Sept. 5.-William II. Taft,
secretary of war, addressed an audi
ance of 5000 people at the Alameda
tonight and was given an enthusiastic
greeting. 1t was Secretary Taft's only
appearance in the Maine campaign He
was introduced by Harold +. Sewall,
formerly United States consul at
Hawaii, whose guest he was while here.
Mr. Sewall spoke of Secretary Taft as
the probable successor of President
Roosevelt. Secretary Taft will return
Secretary Taft said:
propose this evening to invite your at
tcntion chiefly to a subject that has a
very important bearing upon the issue
presented TO You in this campaign.
whether you shall return a Republican or
a Democratic House of Representatives.
l refer to the evils arising from the mis-
use anc abuse of the powerful inStru
mentalitieS which the free opportunity to
organize and combine capital has placed
IN tne nandS OF the comparatively few.
50 widespread have these evils become
that the public has demanded remcdie es;
py legislation to restrain them and TO
regulate and supervise more carefully liz
future t.4e exercise Cf the mighty means
OF gooa and evil which organized capital
has proven to b..
In the discussion of this subject it is
wei for us to begin with the pr"n!lsc chat
wealth used as capital for the production
of commodities and convenienc-s essen
tial to the life ana comfort of The pcupil.
is one OF the chief means by which q pco-
pie c:in he upliited in their PURSUIT Of
happincss. It would be easy in listening
tors TO gather the impression that all
wealth and all capital and all corpora
tionS are to be cOndemned; wheItaS.
when We look at the matter StrI sht il
the face we knew that the proSnt rity Of
this country and the comfort tEIt has
been produced are largely to be attribut
ed to the assembling Of the savings of tn"
many. into corporate capital 50 that it
may be used to establish and carry out
the large enterprises for production.
manufacture and transportation. without
now "njoying would not have been at
taincd. We must kecr constantly n mind
that any step taken. having effect gen
orally to discourage corporate enterprises
and the savings of earnings for tn" pur-
pose oil establishing and operating them.
would fall with greater weight OF suffer
ing upon the poor. the waSe-carncr, the
small dealer. and tho salaried man. than
upon the owner of capital and the man
ager of corporate enterprises
The enormous increase in tn" business
U
capacity is shown by the statistics re.
Gently ISSUED by the Census Bureau Of
the capital invested. the products made
and the wages paid in the manufact ing
industries Of the United States in the nv.
years from 1860 to 1925 inclusive. TIL"
capital invested increased from nine bill
cent. 10 nearly thirteen billions Of dol
lars. The value Of the products increased
from eleven billion. five hundred million
to fifteen billion dollars nr gain of thir
f1-r N h.
Garner. while there were is per cent more
men employed in 19H5 than in 1%" the
amount paid in wages was 20 per cent; cent;
the capitalists in the manufacturing in
drstries were receiving less proportion
ate profit, the wage -earners were receiv-
ing 4 crater proportion of wages. Never
before in the history of the world mas
there been such prosperity shown as In
this country. and certainly he would be
an arch-conspirator against the happi-
ness Of all the people who would dellber-
ately or negligently do anything to de-
stroy it.
trusted and should be charged. with the
duty of curbing corporate and caWta!-
istic abuses. are those who fully apprecl-
ate and value fairly and wisely the uses
Of aggregate wealth as capital. ard rec
ogniZe it as Indispensable to the prosper
ity Of the community and the pursuit d
the same time fully recognize the evils OF
the abuses which have arisen Dy its ms
use, and the necessity for their correc- |
tiOn.
For the sake Of clearness in examining
into the character of the evils and abuses
which need restraint and punishment. we
may divide corporations guilty OF them
into Industrial corporations. organized for
the purpose of manufacture and sale OF
merchandise. and into railroad ana otncr
corporations. organized for the transpor-
tation of passengers and goods. Let us
deal first with industrial corporations
The valuable consideration moving to the
public for comforting the privilege anu
franchise necessary in the lncorporatl0n
Of capital in such corporations is the pub
lie benefit to be derived In the lowering
of rrices. The temptation to the mama
gers. however. when the enterprises pc
come very large is to suppress comneti-
ton and maintain prices and thus to DENY
to the public its proper share IN tne
hanofit sought to be attained. and to ap-
prorriate to the corporate owners all the
profit derived from improved facil1ties OF
production. One methcd Of suppressinE
competition is by agreements between an
the large concerns engaged In the same
business to limit the output and MAINTAIN
prices. Such agreements are usually Sc
cret and are difficult for public ofhcals
IN obta in -6roof of; but when these agree
nnents do become nublic and are success
fully prosecuted. this method IS aban-
doned. and the Independent corporations
that acted together under secret agree,
merits to maintain prices are absorped
INTO one great corporation, so that the
large proportion Of the producing capital