The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-05

alienate its remaining coal lands. l have temporarily withdrawn from settlement all the lands which the geological sur vey has indicated as containing or in all probability containing coal. The ques- tion, however, can be properly settled only by legislation. which in my judg- ment should provide for the withdrawal of these lands from sale or from entry, save in certain especial circumstances. The ownership would then remain in the United States which should not, however, attempt to work them but permit them to be worked by private individuals un- der a royalty system, the government keeping such control as to permit it to see that no excessive price was charged consumers. It would, of course, be as necessary 10 supervise the rates charged by the common carriers to transport the product as the rates charged by those who mine it; and the supervisoin must extend to the conduct of the common carriers, so that they shall in no way favor one competitor at the expense of another The withdrawal of these coal lands would constitute q policy anal agous to that which has been followed in withdrawing the forest lands from ordi- nary settlement. The coal. like the for ests. should be treated as the property of the public and it's disposal should be under conditions which would inure to the benefit of the public as a whole.
 Corporations.
 The present congress has taken long strides in the direction of securing prop
 CT supervision and control by the national government over corporations engaged in interstate business-and the enormous majority of corporations of any size are engaged in interstate business. The passage of the railway rate bill, and only to less degree the passage of the pure food bill, and the provision for increasing and rendering more effec- tive national control over the beef packing industry, mark an important advance in the proper direction. In the short ses- sion it will perhaps be difficult to do much further along this line, and it may be best to wait until the laws have been in operation for number of months before endeavoring to increase their scope because only operation will show with exaetness their merits and their shortcomings and thus give opportunity to define what further remedial legisla- ton is needed. Yet in my judgment it will in the end be advisable in connection with the packing house inspection law to provide for putting a date on the label and for charging the cost of inspection to the packers. All these laws have all ready Justified their enactment, The in terstate commerce law for instance, has rather amusingly falshed the predic- tions both of those who asserted that it would ruin the railroads and or those who asserted that it did not go far enough and would accomplish nothing. During the last five months the railroads have shown increased earnings and some of them unusual dividends while dur ing the same period the mere taking ef- feet of the law has produced an un- pfecedented, a hitherto unheard or, mum ber of voluntary reductions in freights and fares by the railroads. Since the founding of the commission there has never been a time of equal length in which anything like so many reduced tar ifs have been put into effect. On Au- gust 27, for instance, two days before the new law went into effect the com misison received notices of over five thousand separate tariffs which repre- scented reductions from previous rates.
 It 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 national government over the use of capital Tn interstate commerce. For example, there will ultimately be need of enlarglng the powers of the interstate commerce com mission along several different lines, so as to give it larger and more e1hclent control over the railroads.
 If can not too often be repeated that experience has conclusve1y shown the impossibility of securing by the actions Of nearly half hundred different state ieg- islatures anything but ineffective chaos in the way of dealing with the great cor porations which do not operate exclusive Iy within the limits of any one 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 pres ent over these great corporations-a con trol that will among other things prevent the evils of excessive overeapltalizaHon, and that will compel the disclosure ny each big corporation of its stockholders and of Its properties and business, wheth- CT owned directly or through subsidiary or affiliated corporations. This will tend to put stop to the securing Of inor- dinate profits by favored indiViGuals at the expense whether of the general pub lie the stockholders, or the waseWork- CTS our effort should be not so much to prevent consolidation as such, but 50 to supervise and control it as to see that it resultg in no harm to the people. The reactionary or ultraconservativo dpoioS- ists for the misuse of wealth assal the effort to secure such control as a step toward socialism. As matter or fact 1t is these recationaries and ul.raeon- servatives who are themselves most po- tent in increasing socialistlc feeling. One of the most efficient methods of avert ing the consequences of dangerous ag'- tation which is so per cent wrong, IS to remedy the 20 per cent of evil as to which the agitation is well founded. The hest way 10 avert the very undesirable move for the governmental ownership of railways is to secure by the government on behalf of the people whole such adeouate control and regulation of the great interstate common carriers 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 such is to secure by proper legislation and executive action the aboi- ition of the grave abuses which actually do obtain in connection with the bus'ness use of wealth under our present system or rather no systenl--of failure 10 eScf- else any adequate control at all. Some persons speak as if the exercise or sicn governmental control would do away with the freedom of individual initiative and dwarf individual effort. This is not e fact It would be a veritable calamity to fail to put a premium upon individual initiative, individual capacity and effort; upon the energy character, and fore sight which 1t is so important to en- courage in the individual. But as mat ter of fact the deadening and degrading effect of pure socialism and especially of its extreme form communism and the destruction of individual character Which they would bring about, are In part achieved by the wholly unregudted com petition which results in single lndivid- lial or corporation rising at the expense of all others until his or it's rise el- fectually checks all competition dad re- duces former competitors 10 a position