The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-12-17
MAKE PACKERS STAND

LOST OF INSPECTION.
The present Congress has taken long
strides i'm the direction of securing pro-
per supervision and control by the Ma
tiOnal Government over corporations en-
gagged in interstate busincss-and the
enormous majority Of corporations of
any size are engaged in interstate bust.
ness The passage of the railway rate
bill, and only to a less degree the pas
sage of the pure food bill, and the pro
vision for increasing and rendering more
effective national control over the beef
packing industry mark an important ad
vance i'm the proper direction In the
short session it will perhaps he difficult
to do much further along this line and
il may be best to wait until the laws
have been operation for number of
months before cndcavoring TO increase
their scope, because only operation will
show with .cxactncss their merits and
their shortcomings and thus give oppor-
tunity to define what further remedial
legislation is needed. Yet i'm my iudg-
ment il will in the end he advisable in
connection with the packing house inspec-
ton law TO provide for putting a date
on the label and for charging the cost Of
inspection to the packers. All these laws
have already justified their enactment
The interstate commerce law. for in
stance, has rather amusingly faIsified
the predictions. both of those who assert
ed that it would ruin the railroads and
of those who asserted that it did not
go far enough and would accomplish
nothing.
During the last five months the rail
roads have shown increased earnings and
some of them unusual dividends, while
during the same period the mere taking
effect of the law has produced an unprc-
ffccdented. a hitherto unhcard Of number
of voluntary reductions in freights and
fares by the railroads Since the found
ing of the commission there has never
been time of equal length in wlich
anything like so many reduced tariffs
have been put into effect On August
81 for instance two days before the
new law went into effect. the commission
received notices of over 5000 separate
tariffs which represented reductions from
previous rates.
NEW ENGLAND POWER.
II must not be supposed, however, that
with the passage of these laws it will
be possible to stop progress along the
line of increasing the power of the Ma
tional Government over the use of CAPT
tai in interstate commerce. For exam
pie, there will ultimately be need of en-
larging the powers of the Interstate Com
ent lines, so as to give it larger and
more efficient control over the railroads
1t cannot too often be repeated that
experience has conclusively shown the
impossiblity of securing by the actions
of nearly half hundred different State
Legislatures anything but ineffective
chaos in the way of dealing with the
great corporations which do not operate
State. In some method, whether by a
national license law or in other fashion,
we must exercise and that at an early
date, a far more complete control than
at present over these great corporations
"A control that will. among other things
prevent the evils of excessive overcapi-
talization and that will compel the dis
closure by each corporation of its stock
holders and of its properties and bust
ness, whether owned directly or thru sub
sidiary or affiliated corporations This
will tend to put a stop to the securing
of inordinate profits by favored ndivi-
duals at the expense whether Of the gen
eral public, the stockholders or the wage
workers. Our effort should he not so
much to prevent consolidation as such,
but so to supervise and control it as to
see that it results in no harm TO the peo-
pie. The reactiOnary or ultracOnscrva-
tive apolOgists for the misuse of wealth
assail the effort to secure such control
as a step toward socialism. As a mat
ter of fact it is these reactionaries and
ultraconservatives who are themselves
most potent in increasing sOcialistic feel
ing.
One of the most efficient methods of
averting the consequences of a danger
GUS agitation, which is so per cent wrong,