The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-12-04

nothing. During the last hve months
: the railroads have shown increased
i. earnings and some Of them unusual
dividends; while during the same per-
iod the mere taking effect OF the law
| has produced an unprecedented, a
: tary reductions in freights and fares
by the railroads. Since the founding
of the Commission there has never
been a time of equal length in which
| anything like so many reduced tar
ifs have been put into effect.
i On August q, for instance, two days
before the new law went into effect,
!; the Commission received notices of
over five thousand separate tariffs
which represented reductions from pre-
vious rates.
1t can not too often be repeated that
experience has conclusively shown the
impossibility of securing by the &C
lions Of nearly half hundred differ
ent state legislatures anything but
ineffective chaos in the way of dealing
with the great corporations which do
not operate exclusively within the
limits of any one state. In some
! law or in other fashion, we must ex-
ercise, and that at an early date,
| far more complete control than at
present over these great corporations
"a control that will among other
things prevent the evils Of excessive
| disqualification, and that will COM
pei the disclosure by each big corpor-
alton of it's stockholders and Of it's
properties and business, whether own
lated corporations. This will tend to
put stop to the securing of inordin-
ate profits by favored individuals at
the expense 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 it results in no harm to
the people. The reactionary or ultra
conservative apologists for the misuse
of wealth assail the effort to secure
such control as a step toward social
ism. As a matter of fact it is these
reactionaries and ultracOnservatives
who are themselves most potent in
increasing socialistic feeling. One of
the most efficient methods Of avert
} ing the consequences Of a dangerous
agitation, which is so per cent wrong,
is to remedy the 20 per cent of evil
founded. The best way to avert the
| very undesirable move for the govern
mental ownership of railways is to
secure by the government on benalf
| of the people as whole SUCH ade-
; quate control and regulation of the
great interstate common carriers as
! will do away with the evils which
give rise to the agitation against them.
} So the proper antidote to the danger
/ Gus and wicked agitation against the
men of wealth as such is to secure
!; by proper legislation and executive
action the abolition of the grave abus-
| es which actually do obtain in connec-
) ton with the business use of wealth
under our present system-or rather
, no system-of failure to exercise any
adequate control at all. Some persons
speak as if the exercise Of such gov
| ernmental control would do away with
/, the freedom of individual initiative
, and dwarf Individual effort. This is
not a fact 1t would be a veritable
calamity to fail to put a premium up
, on individual initiative, individual ca
, pacity and effort; upon the energy.
character, and foresight which it is
, so important to encourage in the in
, dividual. But as matter of fact the
deadening and degrading effect of pure
r socialism, and especially Of its ex-
IRENE form communism, and the de-
struction 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 former competitors to a
) position of utter inferiority and sub
ordination.
, In enacting and enforcing such leg
, islatiOn as this Congress already has
, to its credit, we are working on a CO.
, herent plan, with the steady endeavor
, to secure Tie needed reform by the
joint action Of the moderate men, the
, plain men who do not wish anything
hysterical Or dangerous, but who do
intend to deal in resolute common
sense fashion with the real and great