The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-04

shall, Wilson and Hamilton. We Us a
people will render ourselves impotent
to deal with any abuses which may
be committed by the men who have
accumulated the enormous fortunes of
today. and who use these fortunes in
still vaster corporate form in bust
ness.
The legislative or judicial actions
and decisions of which complain. be
il remembered, Go not really leave (,
the states power to deal with corpar-
ate wealth i'll business. Actual en-
pe"i' nee has shown that the stat. S
ere wholly powerle:.. to deal with this
sui cot: and any action or lecSio::
that deprives the nation oil the power
,n deal with it. simi. y result, in leav-
ing the corporations absolutely free
to work without any effective super
vision whatever: and such course
Is fraught with untold danger to the
future of our whole system of govern
ment. and. indeed, to our whole civil,-
cation.
All honest men must abhor and re-
probate any effort to .Xcite hostility
to men OF wealth as such. We should
do all We can to encourage thrift an.
business energy, tn put premium
upon the conduct of the man who hon
estly earns his livelihood and more
than his livelihood. and who honestly
uses the money he has earned. But
it is our clear duty to see. in the in
terest of the people. that there is ade-
Quate supervision and control over thu.
business use of the swollen fortunes
of today. and also wisely to determine
the conditions upon which these for
tunes 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
it to the states is farce, and is SIM
ply another way of saying that is
shall not be done at all.
Cnder.a wise and farseeing interpre-
tation of the interstate commerce
clause of the constitution. l 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 it that is em-
ployed in the great corporations does
thus so in. The national legislators
should most scrupulously avoid any
demagogic legislation about the bust
ness use of this wealth. and should
realize that it would be better to have
no legislation at all than legislation
couched either in a vindictive spirit
OF hatred toward men OF wealth or
else drawn with the recklessness of
impracticable Missionaries. But. on the
other hand. it shall and must ultimate
ly 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-in 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 cor
porations which directly or indirectly
do any interstate business whatever
and this includes almost all of the
great corporations.
During the last few years the ma
tional government has taken very
long strides in the direction of en-
ercising and securing this adequate
control over the great corporations,
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 SELL
ator. and then attorney general. Knox
that the new departure was begun
Events have moved fast during the
last five years. and it is curious to
look back at the extreme bitterness
which not merely the spokesman and
representatives of organized wealth,
but many most excellent conservative
people then felt as to the action of
MI. Knox and OF the administration
Many OF the greatest financiers of
this country were certain that Mr.
knoX's Northern Securities suit, if
won, would plunge us into the worst
panic We had ever seen. They de-
nounced as Indictment to anarchy. as
an apology for socialism, the advo-
cacy of politics that either have now
become law or are in fair way of be-
coming law: and yet these same poll
cies. so far from representing either
anarchy or socialism, were in reality
the antidotes to anarchy, the anti
dotes to socialism. To exercise con-
stantly increasing and constantly
more efficient supervision and control
over the great common carriers of the
country prevents all necessity for seri-
ously considering such a project as
the government ownership of railroads
"a policy which would be evil in it's
results from every standpoint.
A similar extension of the national
power to oversee and secure correct
behavior in the management OF all
great corporations engaged in inter-
state business will in similar 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 agtator..
to infiame well-meaning people
against all form of property. and to
commit the country to schemes of
wild. would-be remedy which would
work infinitely more harm than the
disease itself. The government ought
not to conduct the business of the
country; but it ought to regulate i,
SO that it shall be conducted in the
interest of the public.
Perhaps the best justification of the
course which in the national govern
ment We have been pursuing in the
past few years, and which we intend
steadily and progressively to pursue
in the future. is that it is condemned
with almost equal rancor alike by
the reactionaries-the Bourbons-on
side, and by the wild apostles of I'M
rest on the other. The reactionary
Is bitterly angry because We have de-
prived 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
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