The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-03

economic question of the dky in this 1 the great corr porafions engaged in in-
 sra. snd ss na @ % | porationsf At the moment our prime | concern is with the -ratlroads.
 when railroads were lrst built M they {, 7 Boundaries were not coextehelvs even usually covered but two or three c0un-
 ''.si Ali this has now changed. At pres | w four -fifths of the total mileage of ! the country. All the most important | but instruments of interstate com merce. Probably S5 per cent of their l business is interstate business. It is the nation alone which can with wis else over these snterstate railroads | the thorough and corhpletefsupervision which should be exercised. One of the
 chief. and probably sns acnts cnasf; of T, the the l Constitution was the heed to confer I upon the nation exclusive control over ! interstate commerce. But this grant of power is worthless unless a it is ne,J 4so se control over practically the sole inssru- mentalities of Interstate commerce. 1 the interstate railroads. . The railroads themselves have been exceedingly shortsighted in the ran corous bitterness which tfsy nay shown against the resumption by the nation of this long neglected poweR upon their extreme conservatism, of ten believe they are acting In the in- terests of property when following a course so shortsighted as to be really shown extreme unwisdom in their vio- lent opposition to the assumption of complete control over the railroads by the Federal government m
 The American people will not toier- | ate the happy go lucky. system or no control over the great interstate rail- roads, with the insolent and manifold companied on dit it. The control must exist | somewhere; and unless 1t is by thor oughgoing and radical law placed upon l the statute books of the nation, 1t Will ure by the several States. The same l considerations which made the found- | CTS Of the Constitution deem it imper- | atlve that the nation should have com ] plete control of the interstate com- | merce apply with peculiar force to the control of interstate railroads at the | present day; and the arguments of
 Madison of viTgini,n; ,, p,ncnney a or f SSn.n Hnm | York. in their essence apply now as ] they applied one hundred and twenty years ago.
 states May Be Incompetent. I framed the ConstitdlIon, and in which almost all the most eminent of the | first generation of American statesnen
 sat- embodied the theory; of the instfu- ment in a resolution, to1the effect that the gnationsI government should have power in cases where the separate I States were tncompetent to act with I full efficiency. and where the haruseny of the United States would be inter Irupted by the exercise of such tndivid- ual Legislation.
 The interstate railroad situation Is \ exactly case In point There will. | of course, be local matters affecting railroads which can best be dealt with | with by local authority, but as national l commercial agents the big interstate | railroad ought to be completely sub | ject to national authority. Only thus | can we secure their complete sub1ec- | tion to, and control by, a single sov- ereign, representing the whole people, and capable both of protecting the pub lie and of seeing that the railroads neither inflict nor endure injustice Personally, I firmly believe that there
 should be national legislation to con- trol all industrial corporations doing
 interstate business, including the con trol of the output of their securities, but as to these the snecesisty for Fed eral control ID less urgent and imrne- diate than Is the case with the rail- | roads. Many. of the abuses connected with these corporations will probably tend to disappear now that the govern | ment--the publtc--is gradually getting | the; upper hand as regards putting a stop to the rebates and special privi- leges which some of these corporations
 have enjoyed at the hands of the com
 mon carriers. But ultimately 1t will
 be found that the complete remedy for
 these abuses lies in direct and af1rns-
 tive action by the national government.
 Thatthere is constitutional power Tor
 the national regulation of these cor
 porations l have myself no question.
 Two or three generations ago there.
 was just as much hostility to national
 control of banks as there ts now to na-
 dustrial corporations doing an inter
 state business. That hostility now
 seems to us ludicrous in It's lack Of
 warrant; in like manner, gentlemen,
 our descsndants will regard with won
 der the present opposition to giving
 the national government adequate pow
 CT to control those great corporations,
 iy, safely and justly control. Remem-
 Der also that to regulate the formation
 of these corporatione offers one of the
 most direct and ehicient methods of
 regulating their activities.
 am not pleading for an extension
 of constitutional power. I am pleading
 that constitutional power which al-
 ready e&l6tS small De applleu 70 new
 conditions which did not exist when
 the Constitution went into being.
 ask that the national powers already
 conferred upon the national govern
 ment by the Constitution shall be-~so used as to bring national commerce
 and industry effectively under the au-
 thority or the Federal government and
 thereby avert industriai chaos.
 My plea is not to bring about con
 dition of centralization. It Is that the government shall recognize a condition
 of centralization in a field where 1t
 already exists. When the national
 banking law was passed it represented
 in reality not centralizatton, but re- cognition of the fact that the country
 had so far advanced tnar the currency
 was already a matteri of national con-
 cern and must be dealt with by the
 central authority at Washington. So
 it is with interstate industrialism and
 especially with the matter of inter- state railroad operation today. Cen
 traliZation has already taken place in
 the world of commerce and industry.
 All I ask is that the national govern
 ment look this fact in the face ac-
 cept it as fact, and fit itself ac-
 cordingly for Il policy of supervision
 and control over this centralized com
 merce and industry.