The Bottineau courant., 1906-12-07

asserted that 1t would ruin the railroads
and of those who asserted that 1t did not
nothing. During the last five months the
railroads have shown increased earnings
and some Of them unusual dividends;
taking effect Of the law has produced
an unprecedented, hitherto unheard Of,
number Of voluntary sdlndIs reductions e,noa IN
the founding of the commission, there has
never been time Of equal length IN
which anything like so many reduced
August 27, for instance, two days before
the new law went into effect, the COM
mission receyed notices Of ever W. SoCo
tiOns from previous rates.
1t must not be supposed, however. that
with the passage Of these laws 1t will be
possible to stop oa a9hg ing
government over the use of capital IN
interstate commerce. For example, there
will ultimately be need OF enlarglng tne
powers of the interstate commerce COM
mission along several different lines, SO
as to give it a larger and more efficient
control over the railroads. b
Need of Federal Legislation.
It cannot too often be repeated that ex-
perience has conclusively shown the i'm.
Peary Sslf Sei"raE h@ndfed ie
chaos in the way Of dealing with the
great corporations WHICH uO IlOI OpCA q &c
exclusively within the limits Of any one
state. In some method, whether by
national license law or In other fash1on.
we must. exercise, and that at an early
at present over these great corpora
tions-a control that will among other
gs the eyi that Will eop
the disclosures by each big corporation
of it's stockholders and of its properties
and business, whether owned directly 1;o OF
This will tend to put a stop to the secur-
ing Of inordinate profits by favored
individuals at the expense whether OF
the wageworkers. Our effort should be
not, so much to prevent consolldation as
such. but so to supervise and control 1t
the people. The reactionary or ultracon.
servative apologists for the misuse Of
wealth assail the effort to secure such
matter of fact it is these reactionaries
and ultraconservatives who are them
selves most potent in increasing socialis.
methods Of averting the consequences Of
dangerous agitation, which is ~ per
cent. wrong, is to remedy the 20 per cent
Of evil as to which the agitation Is well well
undesirable move for the governmental
ownership Of railways is to to sec secure neops by
regulation of the great interstate corn
mon carriers as vii! DO away t WIN VIII +ine ine
egan eyI whSe tSem give So ss sse 70 pe
to the dangerous and wicked agitation
against the men of wealth as such is to
hg tSe abeon OF the
abuses which actually do obtain. In con
nection with the business use of wealth
our an1 ade
| quate control at ALL Some persons speak
as if the exercise of such governmental
WOud do with snd ths dMar na
| vidual effort This is not fact. It
would be veritable calamity to fail to
put premium upon indivaduai lnltlauve, sa ", :
energy. character and foresight which
| it is so important to encourage In the
Individual. But as a matter of fact the
deadening and degrading effect OF pure
socialism. and especially of it's extreme
| form communism, and the destruction OF
individual character which they would
wholly unregulated competition which
results in a single individual or corpor-
| alton rising at the expense of all others
until his or it's rise effectually checks an
competition and reduces former compet-
subordination.
lation as this congress already has to it's
| credit, we are working ON a cohefent
plan, with the steady endeavor to SECURE
the needed reform by the joint action IL OF OF
do not wish anything hysterical or
| dangerous, but who do intend to deal
resoute Il fashion Shn WIN
system. The reactionaries and the ,vio-
lent extremists SHOW SYMPTOMS % OF JON. ON.
ing hands agansst u.s. Hotn We sSoud
to government ownership OF rallroaos
and the like; the reactionaries: because
on such an issue they think the people
tremists care rather to preach discnntent
and agitation than to achieve solid re-
suits. AS a matter Of fact, our position
reactionary as from that of the ilnprac,
ticable or sinister visionary. We hold
| that the government should not conduct
| should exercise such supervision as will
insure its being conducted in the inter-
| est of the nation. Our aim Is. so far as
Working men, equality of opportunity and
| equality of burden.
Combinations Are Necessary.
shown that the effort to prohibit all com
| bination, good or bad, is noXious where
it is not ineffective. Combination, of
| capital like combination of labo. is a
trial system. It is not possible completely
to prevent it; and If it were possible,
see" sge to o0t the body polite. What We need
is not vainly to prevent all combination,
| but to secure such rigorous and adequate
| control and supervision of the combina-
| tions as to prevent their injur!ng the
| public, or existing in such form as inev-
| itably to threaten injury-for the mere
| fact that a combination has secured
! practically complete control of a Aeces-
sary of life would under any ctrcum-
stances show that such combination was
| to be presumed to be adverse to the pub
| lie interest 1t is unfortunate that our
present laws Should forbid all combina-
| tions, instead OF sharply discriminating ng
| between those combinations which do
| evil Rebates, far instance, are as often
| due to the presyure of big shippers Gas
| was shown in The investigation of the
| Standard Gil company and as has been
| shown since by the investigation of the
| tobacco anG sugsr trusts as to the fniti-
| ative of big railroads. Often railroads
| would like 30 corabine for the purpose of
| preventing i big shipper from maintain
! ing improper ad, antages at the expense
| of small shippers and Of the general pub
| lie. Such combination, instead OF being
| forbidden By law should be favored In
! other words, it ,hould be permitted to
| railroads to make agreements, provided
| these agreements were sanctioned by the
were published With these two condi-
| tions complied with It is impossible to
Sc. what harm such combination could
| do to the public 1t large. 1t is public
evil to have on tle statute books law
| both judges and ;uries realize that its
full enforcement would destroy the busi-
| ness of the country; for the result Is to
| =. y. 5.,oap% lroH mon vip1a fore Of