The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1906-12-07

ty years from Jan. i, 1901, W bcS' o''
1900, there were strikes affecting Ill.,
500 establishments, and 6.lOo'O94 EN-
ployees were thrown out or employ
ment. During the same period there
were 1905 lockouts, involving nearly
10000 establishments, throwing over
100000 people out OF employment
These strikes and lockouts Involved an
estimated loss to employees or S3oh'
100000 and to employers Of SlI3,OOo''
600 total Of S450,00O,OO0, The pubic
suffered directly and Indirectly prob
ably as great additional loss.
Many Of these strikes and lockouts
would not have occurred had the par
ties to the dispute been required 10
appear before an unprejudlced BODY
representing the nation ana. race 10
face, state the reasons for their con
tentlon The exercise Of a judicial
spirit by dsinterested body repre-
sentlng the federal government, such
as would be provided by commission
Oh Cancellation and arbitration, would
tend to create an atmosphere of friend
illness and Cancellation between con.
tending parties.
Control of Corporations.
1t cannot too often be repeated that
experience has conclusvely shown the
impossibilty Of securing by the actions
OF nearly half u hundred different state
legislatures anything but ineffective
chaos in the way of dealing with the
great corporations which do not oper'
ate exclusively within the limits or
any one state. IN some method, wheth-
or by a national license law or In other
fashion, we must exercise, and that at
an early date, far more complete
control than at present over these great
corporations-a control that will. among
other things, prevent the evils OF ex-
cessive overcapitalizatlon and that VIII
compel the disclosure by each big cor
poration of It's stockholders and OF Its
properties and business, whether own
ed directly or through subsidiary or
affiliated corporations. This will tend
to put stop to the securing Of inor'
dnate profits by favored individuals at
the expense whether OF the general
public, the stockholders or the wage
workers. Our effort should be not so
much to prevent consolidation as such.
but so to supervise and control 1t as
to see that 1t results In no harm to the
people.
Combination Of capital like combina.
ton of labor, Is necessary element OF
our present industrial system. 1t Is
not possible completely to prevent It,
and II 1t were possible such complete
proven IN would do damage to the
body polite. What we need Is not
valnly to try to prevent all combina-
ton, but to secure such rigorous ana
adequate control and supervision OF
the combinations as to prevent their
injuring the public or existing In such
form as inevitably to threaten Injury,
for the mere fact that combination
has secured practically complete con
troll of II necessary of life would under
any circumstances show that such
combination was to be presumed to be
adverse to the public interest. 1t Is
unfortunate that our present laws
should forbid all combinations instead
of sharply discriminating between
those combinations which do good and
those combinations which do evil. Re
bates for instance, are as often due to
the pressure Of big shippers las was
cl, In no ipv iro ion IF tho
Standard Oil company and as has been
shown since by the investigation Of
the tobacco and sugar trusts as to the
Initiative of big railroads. Often rail-
roads would like to combine for the
purpose Of preventing big shipper
from maintaining improper advantages
at the expense Of small shippers and
of the general public. Such combina.
ton, instead Of being forbidden by law,
should be favored In other words, 1t
should be permitted to railroads to
make agreements provided these agree
ments were sanctioned by the inter-
state commerce commission and were
published. With these two conditions
complied with IT is impossible to see
what harm such combination could
do to the public at large.
Inheritance and Income Tax.
The national government has long
derived its chief revenue from a tariff
on imports and from an Internal or ex.
else tax. In addition to these, there Is
every reason why. when next our sys.
TEN Of taxation Is revised, the national