Omaha daily bee., 1906-10-05


the great question Of the present dsy-the
question OF providing on behalf OF tne SOW
ereign people the means which will enable
the people In effective form 10 assert their
SOVEREIGNTY over the immense CORPORATIONS
Of the day. Certain judicial decisions have
done just what Wilson feared; they have.
as matter OF fact, LETT vacancies LETT
blanks between the limits Of possible state
jurisdiction and the limits Of actual national
lursdicton over the control OF the great
construction Of the powers of the national
government which in our democracy has
proved the chief means of limiting the ma
tional power to cut out abuses and which
r. now the chief bulwark OF those great
moneyed interests which oppose and dread
any attempt to place them under efficient
governmental control
Many legislative actions and MANY Judi
Will show 20 have been erroneous and
damage TO the country would have been
approa ched the matter OF enacting and con-
STRUNG the laws OF the land in the spirit
of your great Pennsylvanian, Justice VIII
son-in the spirit Of Marshall and of Wash
ington. Such decisions put US at n great
disadvantage in the battle for Industrial
order as Sgainst the present industrial
narrow instead of broad fashion. II we
forsake the principles of Washington, Mar
shall. Wilson and Hamilton. we as a people
will render ourselves impotent to deal with
any abuses which may be committed by the
fortunes of today. and who use those for
tunes in still vaster corporate form in busl-
ness.
The legislative or judicial actions and de
cisions Of which complain, be II remem-
bered do not really leave to the states
power to deal with corporate wealth In
business. Actual experience has shown
that the states are wholly powerless To
deal with this subject and any action or
power to deal with it, simply results in
leaving the corporations absolutely free to
work without any effective supervision
with untold danger to the future OF our
whole system OF government and, indeed.
to our whole civilization.
what the Nation Must Do.
All honest men must abhor and reprobate
wealth as such. We should do all we can
to encourage thrift and business energy
to put premium upon the conduct of the
man who honestly earns his livelihood and
more than his livelihood, and who honestly
uses the money he has earned. But 1t is
our clear duty to see, in the interest of the
people, that there is adequate supervision
and control over the business use of the
swollen fortunes of today, and also wisely
to determine the conditions upon which
these fortunes are TO be transmitted and
the percentage that they shall pay to the
government whose protecting arm alone
enables them to exist Only the nation
can do this work To relegate Il to the
states is farce, and is simply another way
of saying that 1t shall not be done at all.
Under a wise and far-seeing Interpretation
of the interstate commerce clause OF the
constitution | maintain that the national
government should have complete power to
deal with all of this wealth which in any
way goes into the commerce between the
states-and practically all of IL that Is en-
ployed in the great corporations does thus
go In. The national legislators should most
ton about the business use of this wealth
and should realize that IL would be better
to have no legislation at all than legisla-
ton couched either In a vindctive spirit of
hatred toward men of wealth or else drawn
with the recklessness of impracticable
Missionaries. But on the other hand, IL shall
and must ultimately be understood that the
United States government, on behalf of
the people Of the United States, has and
is to exercise the power of supervision and
control over the business use of this wealth
lin the first place, over all the work OF the
common carriers OF the nation, and in the
next place over the work of all the great
corporations which directly indirectly |
do any interstate business whatever-and
this includes almost oil of the great cor
porations.
During the last few years the national
government has taken very long strides in
this adequate control over the great cor |
porations, and IT was under the leadership
of one of the. most honored public men IN
our country, one of Pennsylvania most |
eminent Sons-the present Senator land then |
attorney general knox-that the new de-
parture was begun. Events have moved |
fast during the last five years and II Is |
curious to. look back at the extreme bitter,
ness which not merely the spokesman ana
representatives of organized wealth, but |
many most excellent conservative people 1
then felt as to the action of Mr.. Knox and
Many of the greatest financiers OF this /
country were certain that Mr. hnoNs |
plunge us into the worst panic we had
ever seen. They denounced Indictment |
t tS as 81 an n aISog Tor either hsve
now become law or are In fair way of be- |
coming law; and yet these same policies, SO |
far from representing either anarchy or |
socialism, were in reality the antidotes to |
anarchy, the antidotes to socialism. TO
exercise a constantly increasing and con- |
stantlV efficient SlinaryiSiOn. and con- |
troll over the great common carriers Of the !
country prevents all necessity for seriously
ment ownership of railroads. policy which |
would be evil in its results from every
standpoint.
Government and Business.
A similar extension of the national power
TO oversee and secure correct behavior In
the management of all great corporations
engaged in interstate business will in SINH
lar fashion render far more stable the
present system by doing away with those
grave abuses which are not only evil In
themselves. but are also evil because they
furnish an excuse for agitators to inhame
well-meaning people against all forms of
property. and to commit the country to
would work infinitely more harm than the
disease itself The government ought not
TO conduct the business of the country; but
II ought TO regulate 1t so that II shall be
conducted in the interest of the public,
Perhaps the best justification of the
course which In the national government
We have been pursuing IL. the past few
years. and which we intend steadily and
progressively to pursue in the future, is
that IL is condemned with amose equal
rancor alike by the reactionaries--the Bour-
bons-on one side, and by the wild apostles
of unrest on the other The reactionary is
bitterly angry because we have deprived
him OF that portion of his power which he
misuses to the public hurt the agitator is
angered for various reasons, including
among others the fact that by remedying
the abuses we have deprived him of the
fulcrum of real grievance. which alone rem
ders the lever of irrational agitation for
midable.
We have actually accomplished much.
But We have not accomplished all, nor any
thing like ALL that we feel must be accom-
plished. We shall not halt: we shall stead
lily follow the path we have marked out,
executing the laws we have succeeded In
putting upon the statute books with abso-
lutte impartiality as between man and man,
and unreSting in our endeavor TO strengthen
and supplement these by further laws
which shall enable us in more efficient and
more summary fashion to achieve the ends
We have in view.
Construction work by Congress.
During the last few years congress has
had to deal with such vitality important
questions as providing for the building of
the Panama canal, inaugurating the vast
system of national irrigation in the states
of the great plains and the Rocky noun
tains, providing for "a Pacific cable, and
so forth. Yet in addition TO these tasks,
some of which are of stupendous impor-
lance, congress has taken giant strides
along the path of government regulation
and control of corporations the inter