New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1907-11-20
PERIL TO THE nation
Grosscup Wants Corporate Rule
of Peoples Wealth Checked.
STATE AND NATION TO DO IT.

STATE AND NATION TO DO IT. !
Dangerous Condition if Uncontrolled, !,
Says Chicago Judge-Teils Irish Eel /
Iowship Club That Greater Circula-
ton Will Not End Money Trouble.
Judge Peter S. Grosscup of the Unit
ed States circuit court IN a recent adj
dress before the Irish Fellowship club
In Chicago declared for state and fed /
eral control of corporation dividends,
says the Chicago Record-Herald His
talk was hinged upon the present mon
ey stringency, which, he said, could
not be explained by lack Of money.
He asserted that corporate control OF
the peoples wealth constitutes dan
ger to the country if permitted to go
on.
Judge Grosscup said in part:
eve are in the midst of most
phenomenal national development. We
have greater circulation Of money
per capita than ever before. Yet we
are told it is not large enough. Higher
wages are being paid, workingmen are
more skilled. industry and commerce
and our capacity for consuming prod
ucts are larger than ever was the case
in the worlds history. Our crops for
the last seven or eight years have
been phenomenal. Never before has
there been so great foreign demand
for American products. Yet with all
these elements of prosperity in our
favor we find business for the moment
in state of paralysis.
Eve are like a man stepping sud
! denly from bright sunshine into a mist.
Our banks are sound; our industries
are sound; our productivity is sound;
we are hopeful and e1pectant. Some
! say there is not enough currency in the
country l cannot see how, if there
was enough ten days ago, there is not
enough now.
america is going through a trans
| formation We have come in the last
! twenty years to a place where we are
bound to pause and readjust ourselves
to new conditions. Twenty years ago
the people of the United States had
invested in industries through the
banks less than $2,0OO,000,000. Of the
peoples wealth there is loaned to Dor
rowers from the banks now sum five
or ten times larger in proportion.
Thirty years ago the cOuntry's in
dustries belonged to the men conduct
ing them Now the ninety and nine
furnish the bone and sinew of the en-
terprise controlled by the one. This
is a dangerous condition if permitted
to go on uncontrolled. Unless we think
more deeply and carefully than some
of our political leaders there is trou-
BILE ahead for the nation.
1.-THE corporation has not been looked
after as a means of exercising the
property instinct of the American peo-
Pile. A corporation which subserves
this purpose honestly and fairly, doing
it's duty by the public and the investor,
is doing public service. If it uses
/ quick rich methods care not wheth-
er it is a gentlemen's club or a swim
dlers' scheme-it is a menace and a
disgrace. I have been engaged for
Ave or six years trying to extricate
the victims Of such corporation.
i 1.-THE remedy Is for the state Of Illi-
nois locally and the United States of
America in national enterprises to de-
part from their Indifference and lay
the foundations for corporate struc-
lures that will exercise the trusteeship
! they ought to exercise. Ii our state
j permits corporation to swindle thou
sands Of investors by financial legerde-
main and false reports you and are
not absolved from blame by having
! ahad no personal part in the fraud.
''Why is it that the state Of Illinois
1 permits corporations to pay unearned
dividends? Thus was traction stock
raised from 30 to par and double par
and higher while nothing was spent
1 for maintenance. The men on the in
side pocketed the proceeds and left the
investors to hold the bag.
'"There is no reason why a corpora
ton should not be compelled to estab-
lish before competent tribunal that
1 dividends have been earned before it
is allowed to pay them.
What l ask is that the corporation
shall become medium through which
the instinct OF mankind for independ-
ence can work itself out. The Ameri
can people are not afraid of ordinary
business risks. They demand an eff
cient fundamentally through which to
work out their instinct to be men
4 among men"