The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-22
OUR UNPARALLELED
 PROSPERITY How it Has Caused Us to Wax Fat and
 Kick. IMITATORS OF NERO. They Fiddle While Confd- ence is Being De-
 stroyed.
IMITAToRs OF NERO.
To the Editor Journal and Courier:

To the Editor Journal and Courier:
 Nero did great many things. For al the horrid matters written about him, he was very popular, especially with the Roman ladies. But his best known effort was to fiddle while Rome was burning. He has at the present time many imitators, especially in the pub lie press,
 This country. this age, Is an indus trial country and an industrial age Just now industry throughout this and 1 some other countries is manifestly ir or approaching crisis. There are two antagonistic views concerning the sit- uation. One is that the capital of the world is insufficient to do its industrial i business. The other is that capital has t got scared and is acting as it always does when 1t gets scared-it withdraws itself from industrial activity.
 If capital has become scared, the cause of the scare is obvious. It is pub 1 lie interference with it, the public de- mand to control 1t, the public insistence i to regulate and fix the charge for the use of capital in public service cor porations, the Rooseveltian crusade against large wealth or swollen for tunes" while he himself enjoys sal ary of at least $5O,OOO per annum and an. appropriation of another $5O,0OO for his expenses. (Neither sum too large, in fact, but a curious commentary on his owh doctrine.)
 ] Now 1t ought to be self-evident that when the state has given to private capital the conduct of public service business it has given what naturally I goes with the gifts, to wit, the right to control 1t, the right to have the req { sonable emoluments of the business, the right to have what the business is reasonably worth.
 The power and duty of the, State to interfere if the owners of the public ! service franchise abuse the gift Is read 1 fly conceded, but the abuse must be clearly shown It must not be assumed as the public press of today assumes its l tAlSlCuN6t DGSdLot IL N3At9No VI lo f9NP posed to exist, in the city of New York l doe not prove that it exitsin Connecti- cuf. The fact that the public service l business has become valuable Is no such abuse. Such a result was contem- plated when the franchise. was given
 Speaking generally the owners of this 1 business have found out and that long ago, that true success lies in the wid- est extension of the business, with r-dininisihng rates, and such in f fact is what has taken place. The pub lie and the public press now insist, dis regarding the tenth commandment that the business should have been more widely extended with still more diminishing rates and the public and public press are indifferent, whether profits should or should not vanish un- til, as l think, a rude awakening is coming. For the true test, whether a proposed public regulation of private capital, engaged, at he request of the | State, the public service business, is or is not wise or just, is whether private capital would have gone into the bus mess, under such regulation, or will now stay in it and expand so as to meet the requirements of such business. | Now 1 hold it sef-evident that private capital would not have gone into pub l lie service business in this State If by commission or otherwise the State had retained to itself the constant and never -ceasing control of rates, The original turnpike franchises in this | State did fix rates. They were very high, about twice what the public would pay, but they were fixed for good and all and the turnpikes were dismal failures. So when railroad and other franchises, were granted it was ex- pressly stated in the charter that the directors should ike the rates-a pro- vision, however which, 1t has been held, was not in the nature of a contract, and so not binding upon subsequent legis- lation.
 In this state the fact is so that the public service corporations have not abused their franchises. They have been managed by the very best citi- zens of the State, and you might as we'll ndict the whole community, If you indict it's best citizens.
 You may cite the case of the Con- necticut Railway & Lighting Company but there is no other trouble with the public on that subject than the sin of covetousness. The public has been serv- e1 and will continue to be served, over the lines of that system as fully and cheaply as over any other similar lines in this State or elsewhere, or it will rightly and authoritatively want to know the reason why. This being SO, what interest is it to the public that the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company paid more for the Connecticut Railway & Lighting Com pany than the public thinks ought to have been paid? That great steam railroad company is able to manage its own business, and there was not in fact the slightest ownership in it or in its stockholders and directors of any interest in the trolley company.
 Now to-day the fact Is that never was there such demand for increas- ing amounts of capital to meet the re- quirements of the public service busi- ness Nobody disputes this fact, The press and Roosevelt, both of whom, in my judgment are responsible, for the coming distrust, unite in vociforating that the cause of the present demand for more capital is the assumed bad conduct in the past of the managers of this public business, whereby the capital now needed was wasted I deny 1