Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-12-05

DAILY BEE: WEDNESDAY,
hese great corporations control that will
among otter thtuss prevent tuc evIs OF
eNcessivt overcupuaiza = m, and thaN Will
ton of It's stockhoiders and OF It's prop
critics and business, whether owned directly
OF through subsidiary or affiliated cor
poratiOns. This Will tend 20 put "a stop to
the securing Of inOrdinate profits by IA
VOred individuals AT the expense, whether
of the general public, the stockholders, or
/ the wageworkers. Our efort should be not
so much TO prevent consolidation as such,
but 30 to supervise and control Il as 10
see that Il results In no harm to the people.
The reaCtlOnary or ultraConservative apollo
Rists for the misuse Of wealth assall the
effort to secure such control as step
toward socialism. AS a matter Of fact II
is these reacuunaries and ultraConserVa-
tives who are themselves most potent In
increasing socialistic feeling one OF the
most efficient methods Of averting the con-
sequences OF dangerous agitation, which
is 80 per cent wrong Is to remedy the %
per cent OF evil as 70 which the agitation
is well founded The best way to avert
the very undesirable move for the govern
ment ownership of railways is to secure
by the government on behalf OF the people
as a whole, such adequate control and regu-
lation OF the great interstate common car
riers as Will do away with the evils which
give rise TO the agitation against them.
So the proper antidote To the dangerous
and wicked agitation against the men of
wealth as sucn, Is to secure by proper
legislation and executive action the abo-
lition Of the grave abuses which actually
do obtain in connection with the business
use Of wealth under our present system
or rather no system-of failure to exer-
else any adequate control at all Some
persons speak as II the exercise of such
governmental control would do away with
the freedom of individual initiative and
dwarf Individual effort. This is not fact.
II would be a veritable calamity to fail
to put q premium upon individual initia-
tive, individual capacity and EFFORT: upon
the energy, character, and foresight which
II is so important to encourage in the in
dividual. But as a matter of fact the
deadening and degrading effort of pure
socialism, and especially Of It's extreme
form communion, and the destruction of
individual character which they would
bring about, are in part achieved by the
wholly unregulated competition which re-
suits in a single individual or corporation
rising at the expense Of all others until
his or its rise effectually checks all COM
petition and reduces former competitors to
position of utter inferiority and subordi-
nation.
Opportunity and Equality.
In enactng and enforcing such legisla-
! ton as this congress already has to its
credit, We are working on coherent plan,
with the steady endesvor to secure the
needed reform by the joint action Of the
moderate men, the plain men who do not
wish anything hysterical or dangerous, but
who do intend to deal in resolute, common
sense fashion with the real and great evils
b VI Tue pItbtul system. lIle IedCIOndEltS
and the violent extremists show symp-
toms of Joining hands against us. Both
assert, for instance, that If logical, we
should go to government ownership of rail
roads and the like; the reactionaries be-
cause on such an issue they think the
people would stand with them, while the
extremists care rather to preach discomfort
and agitation than to achieve solid results
AS a matter of fact, our position is as
remote from that of the Bourbon reac-
| tionary as from that OF the impracticable
/ or sinister visionary. We hold that the
government should not conduct the bust
ness of the nation, but that it should ex-
ercise such supervision as will insure its
being conducted In the interest of the ma
ton. Our aim is, so far as may be, to
secure, for all decent, hard working men,
/ equality OF opportunity and equality Of
burden.
The actual working Of our laws has shown
that the effort to prohibit all combination,
good or bad, Is nOXious where IL is not
ineffective. Combination of capital like
combination of labor is a necessary ele-
/ ment OF our present industrial system. 1t
I is not possible completely to prevent II;
and II IL were possible, such complete pre-
Vention would do damage to the body poll
/ tic. What We need is not vainly to try to
prevent all combination, but to secure
such rigorous ana adequate control and
supervision of the combinations as to pre-
vent their inJuring the public, or existing
I III such form as inevitably TO threaten in
: jury-for the mere fact that a combination
has secured practically complete control OF
a necessary of life would under any cir
cumstances show that such combination
was to be presumed to be adverse TO the
( public interest. Itsis unfortunate that our
] present laws should forbid all combina-
4 lions, instead of sharply discriminating be-
/ tween those contributions which do good
and those combinations which do evil Re
bates for instaures~Hre as often due TO
/ in the overwhelmingly the standard oil
I company and as has been shown since by
/ the investigation of the' Tobacco and Sugar
/ trusts as to the initiative of big railroads
Often railroads would Ike to combine for
| the purpose Of preventing a big shipper
/ from maintaining improper advantages at
/ the expense of small shippers and of the
J general public. Such a combination in
| stead OF being forbidden by law, should be
permitted to railroads to make agreements
| provided these agreements were sanctioned
/ by the Interstate Commerce commission
and were published. With these two CON
dtlons compiled with IL is imposgible 70
/ see what harm such.a combination could do
/ to the public at large. 1t is a public evil
/ to have on the statute books a law in
capable of fun enforcement because both
judges and juries realize that its full en-
/ forcement would destroy the business Of the
| country; for the result is to make decent
railroad men vtolators OF the law against
/ their will, and to put a premium on the
! behavior OF the willful wrongdoers Such a
result In turn tends to throw the decent
/ man and the willful wrongdoer into close
association, and in the end to drag down
/ the former to the latter's level: for the
man who becomes a lawbreaker In one
| way unhappily tends to lose all respect for
/ law and TO be willing to break Il in many
ways. No more sCathing condemnation
could be visited upon a law than is con-
! tanned I'm the words of the Interstate Com
| merce commission when, in commenting
upon the fact that the numerous toini
/ traffic associations do technically violate
/ the law, they say: The decision OF the
/ United States supreme court in the trans
/ missouri case and the Joint Traffic asso-
! citation case has produced no practical ef-
/ feet upon the railway operations of the
! country. Such associations. in fact, exist
| now as they did before these decisions
! and with the same general effect. In ius-
tice TO all parties we ought probably to
! add that Il is difficult to see how ouT
/ interstate railways could be operated with
l due regard to the interest of the simmer
and the railway without concerted action
/ OF the kind afforded through these asso-
/ Citations"
INCOME AND INHERITANCE TAX
/ Wealth 10 Contribute to Support of
! Government.
This means that the law as construed
I by the supreme court is such that the
1 business OF the country cannot be con-