Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-23
BY BEVER|DGE
At the Auditorium in Chicago
Last Night
BEFORE LARGE AUDIENCE
Government Ownership and Cuban At
fairs Exploited.
REGULATION OF RAIL TRAFFIC
Indiana Senator Declares That Cuba's
Best Interests VIII be subserved
Only by Annexation.
REGULATION OF RAIL TRAFFIC

CHICAGO. September Ex-senator Albert
| ]. Beverage of Indiana tonight opened the
republican congressional campaign in the
| middle west by delivering an address in
| the Auditorium under the auspices of the
Hamilton Club Of Chicago.
The hall was packed by thousands Of re-
! publicans who gave the senator an enthu
| siastic reception. A short address was
| made by President Wetten Of the HamiI-
| ton Club. preceding the speech Of Senator
| Beveridge. large number of republican
leaders were on the platform during the
meeting. among them being United States
Senators Hopkins of Illinois and Hemen-
| way of Indiana and Representative Town
send, Hamilton and Smith of Michigan.
The speech of Senator Beverage, in part,
follows:
The peoples government should do no
business that the people can do better
themselves: the peoples government should
own no business that the people can bet
ter own themselves.
But the peoples government should con-
troll and regulate industries owned by some
OF the people that are so great as to affect
tNe welfare VI oil VI Lie peOplc.
The people. through their government,
should not permit some of them to prac-
tice business methods that will be unjust
to all of them. But the peoples govern
ment should not own any industry which
private enterprise can efficiently manage
and whose abuses government regulation
can prevent.
Government ownership of nationwide
business is the European theory of in
dustry. Government regulation of ma
tion-wide business is the American theory
Of industry l am for the American
theory and against the European theory.
Let Europe copy America, not America
copy Europe. Government control Of rail-
ways. but not government ownership OF
railways
Private Business and a Public Trust
The day was when individuals could do
the business of communities because those
communities were small and communica-
ton with other communities was difficult.
All business was private business then. 1t
was one man dealing with another man.
But railroads. telegraphs, telephones came
and that period passed away. Universal
communication brought another period into
being. What was before the needs OF hum
dreds became the needs of millions. And
SO the organization of industry grew out
Of the interests of the people.
Nothing but great combinations of capt.
tai could answer the enormous needs of the
masses. And because one man was no
longer dealing with another man, but vast
corporations were dealing with millions of
men, those corporations became no longer
private concerns, but public servants. Their
managers became no longer private bust
ness men, but public business men. Every
manager of every great industry which
touches all the people is no longer an indi-
vidual dealing with another individual; he
is a statesman Of affairs dealing with a
nation. He is no longer an exclusive owner
managing a private business for his eXcu-
Sive gain alone. he Is trustee managing
great business for the peoples welfare as
well as his own welfare.
Organizations Of Industry Indispen-
sable.
1 repeat that the modern development Of
organized industry is not only necessary.
but that 1t is good. Take as single Illus
tration the railways. Without them Chi
cago would still be a frontier town. With
out them the farmers Of Iowa could not
get their cattle and grain to market. With
out them merchants would be without both
customers or stock. Without them the
daily newspaper could not be served to the
country districts Without them the nation
would fall asunder
Just the organization of American in
dustry developed out Of changed conditions
SO the principle of government regulation
develops out of the action Of these organi-
cations themselves Just as the old meth
DDS of private business would be utterly
principle of arbitrary private management
is utterly inapplicable to the new methods.
And so 1t Is that the new principle of regu-
lation by the government of all the people
over business SO great that it affects all the
people has developed from the very same
causes that produced those great businesses
themselves.
Why Regulation is Necessary. 9.
For example, railway rates are in the
last analysis. a tax on every human being
in the republic. They affect the prices of
all commodities. They directly touch every
variety of business in the nation-eyery
farmer who ships a bushel of grain, every
wholesale merchant who ships goods and
every retail merchant who receives them
every factory that ships it's products. every
mine that ships it's ore, every man, woman
and child who travels from town to town.
1t Is necessary that these rates shall be
just; and the justice of those rates cannot
be left exclusively to the managers of the
railways whose immediate purpose is the
greatest possible profits. If those profits
were disposed of for the equal good of all
stockholders it might be different; but they
are often juggled for the advantage of a
few stockholders as witness the recent
surprise in Union and Southern Pacific
dividends and the results that followed.
Operations like that ought not to be per-
mitted.. "Open and above-board" must
henceforth be the motto of American bust
ness.
Six Years Ago and Today.