The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-12-05

rates.
! 1t 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
Icapital in interstate commerce. For
example, there will ultimately be need
of charging the powers of the Inter-
state Commerce Commission along sew
eral different lines, so as to give it a
larger and more efficient control over
| the railroads.
1t can not too often be repeated that
experience has conclusively shown the
impossibility of securing by the &C
| tons Of nearly half a hundred different
state legislatures anything but ineffec-
tive chaos in the way of dealing with
the great corporations which do not op-
crate exclusively within the limits of
any one state. In some method, wheth-
! er by national license law or in other
fashion, we must exercise and that at
an early date, a far more complete con-
troll than at present over these great
corporations--a control that will among
other things prevent the evils Of Excess
sive over capitalization and that will
compel the disclosure by each big cor
poration of it's stockholders and of its
properties and business, whether owned
directly or thru subsidiary or affiliated
corporations. This will tend to put a
stop to the securing Of inordinate pro-
fits by favored Individuals at the ex-
pense 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 it as to see that
1t results in no harm to the people
The reactionary or ultraconservative
apologists for the misuse Of wealth as
sail the effort to secure such control as
a step toward socialism. AS matter
Of fact it is these reactionaries and I'LL
traconseryatives who are themselves
most potent in increasing socialistic
feeling, One of the most efficient meth
DDS of averting the consequences of a
dangerous agitation, which is so per
cent wrong, is to remedy the 20 per
cent. of evil as to which the agitation
Is well founded. The best way to avert
the very undesirable move for the gov
ernfental ownership Of railways is to
secure by the government on behalf of
the people as a whole such adequate
control and regulation Of the great in
terstate common carriers as will do
away with the evils which give rise to
the agitation against them. SO the pro-
per antidote to the dangerous and
wicked agitation against the men of
wealth as such is to secure by proper
legislation and executive action the
abolition of the grave abuses which ac-
tually do obtain in connection with the
business use Of wealth under our pres
ent system-or rather no system--of
failure to exercise any adequate control
at all. Some persons speak as If the
exercise of such governmental control
would do away with the freedom o fin
dividual initiative and dwarf individu-
al effort. This is not fact. 1t would
be ver-itable calamity to fail to put a
premium upon individual initiative, in
dividual capacity and effort; upon the
tlGISJ, GIldI GtGbSI ctilQ Iva VFls ~ NAAiNAl
| it is so important to encourage in the
| individual But as a matter of fact the
deadenfng 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 unregulated competition
which results in a single individual or
| corporation rising at the expense of all
others until his or its rise effectually
! checks all competition and reduces for
mer competitors to position Of utter
inferiority and subordination.
In enacting and enforcing such legis-
lation as this congress already has to
| its credit, we arae working on a coher-
emit plan, with the steady endeavor to
secure the needed reform by the joint
action of the moderate men, the plain
men who do not wish anything hyster-
| ical or dangerous, but who do intend
to deal In resoute common sense fash
ion with the real and great evils of the
/ present system The reactionaries and
| the violent extremists show symptoms
of Joining hands against us. Both as
sert, for instance, that if logical, we
should go to government ownership of
railroads and the like; the reactiona-
| ries, because 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 O. matter
of fact, our position is as remote from
| that of the Bourbon reactionary as
from that of the impracticable or sinis-
ter visionary. We hold that the gov
eminent should not conduct the bust
ness of the nation, but that it should
exercise such supervision as will insure
! its being conducted in the interest of
/ the nation. 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 it is not ineffective. Combina-
ton of capital likeu combination OF
| labor, is a necessary element of oul
present industrial system. 1T is not
possible completely to prevent it; and
if it were possible, such complete pre-
vention would do damage to the body
polite. What we need is not vainly tC
try to prevent all combination, but to
4 secure such rigorous and adequate con-
troll and supervision of the combina-
{ aions as to prevent their injuring the
public, or existing in ouch form as in
evitabIy to threaten injury-for the