Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-11-20
A PEssIMIsTIC VIEW
President schurman, of Cornell Uni
versity, Predicts School Upheavaf if
Reforms Are Not Inausurated in In.
dustriaI World.

New York, Nov. 20.--Dr. Jacob
Gould Schurman, president of Cornell
University, in an address delivered
yesterday in Old Trinity, attacked the
present industrial system and declared
that unless something was done for the
wage Garner. by the big capitalists the
end would be social revolution. The
address was listened to by a big gath
ering and was given under the aus
pices Of the Seabury Society. DR..
schurman's remarks created a sensa-
ton. He said in part:
Steam, electricity and consolidated
capital are in our own days eliminat-
ing the small producer and the small
trader. The chance Of young men be-
coming independent producers and
traders, when business is conducted on
the scale of millions, instead of thou
sands or hundreds of dollars, is vastly
less than it was in the time of our
fathers.
HAS man no power to protect him.
self against this supposed natural
tendency? Assuredly he has. There
are remedies within his reach which
he may use at any time and which
it may be prudent to use for, extirpat-
ing the existing evil before It becomes
more malignant and more general.
I'm the first place, trusts which are
monopolistic and oppressive may be
deprived Of the advantages which they
now enioy as a. result of tariff or 9TH
er legislation.
II take it that the American people
are committed to the policy of protec-
ton. But no economic or political pro-
gram can long be used as a shelter for
injustice or oppression of the people.
and if any tariff schedule does actually
enable a trust to exploit the people for
it's own enrichment, that tariff sched-
ule is doomed, no matter how much
talk there may be of the sancrity of the
tariff or the solemn duty of standing
pat.
mo doubt governmental interference
with business is bad, but worse still is
it for the government to stand supine-
ly by while combinations Of individu-
ais use the name of business to Cypress
the public.
MIR. Hughes Investigations demo-
strated in the high place of business
shameless disregard of morality, honor
and fidelity to sacred obliga tions and
trusts. At the same time the legal
officials and the judicial tribunals Of
the states and of the nation have been
furnishing similar presentments of the
inn: oral practices of other large COM
panies and orporations-notably the
public service corporations and the cor
porations dealing in the necessaries of
life.
"The, wage-e Garner, feeling himself
and his children doomed to poverty,
rises in rebellion against the economic
system which makes such things pos
sible. He protests that capital gets too
large a share Of the product which Ia
boring men create. His remedy, when
he has a remedy. is confis scation of pr
vate capital in the public interests and
the establishment of a socialistic state.
in which all shall work and all receive
compensation in proportion to their
deserts
"The masses of wage earners are, I
believe, in angry revolt against the
vast inequalities which the present
economic system produces. Shall the
end be socialism, revolution, or what?
For remember that these discontented
classes may easily constitute the ma
iority of our voters, and that in this
republic policies are determined by the
vote of the ma ajority.
"Somewhow-I know not how, but
somewhow-the organizers and finan-
ciers and manager of our most mod
ern establishments of production and
transportation must devise method
whereby the men whose labor builds
them up shall become shareholders in
the enterprises. The present discon-
tent and ranking sense of injustice
must be got rid of if our economic and
Industrial system is to survive"