The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-15
coRPoRArrov rIonrrns.

CORPORATION FIGHTERs. If" declares The Kansas City Jour nal. "a Legislature should enact law providing that any man could go on another's farm and cultivate any piece of land that he found idle for the time
 being without paying rent for it. or that he could make use of the farmers horses and implements without the owners permission to cultivate his own
 land. 1t would cause a mighty rumpus and the author of such a measure would
 be denounced as soc,alistic crank at the very least. In the same light would be regarded a bill tbat author ized the proprietor of department store or any commercial establishment, ] when he found himself out of a certain article of merchandise, to send his
 customer to a competitors place of
 business, pick out the article and carry | 1t off without paying for 1t, or paying only such price as the first merchant
 might fix. That proceeding would cer- tainiy be considered as form of lar ceny which no law-making body could
 make honest and right"
 The Journal then refers to bill
 which has been introduced in the Mis- souri Legislature providing that when d subscriber to one telephone company wants to talk to a man who subscribes to another company, the latter company ad render the service required. Another bill provides that where there are rival street railways in a city each shall have the right to use the tracks and motive power of the. other at will. The Journal adds:
 However, such measures as these are but part and parcel of the rab!d whole sale raids which it has become the fashion with a certain class of politi- cians to instigate against the corpora tions in order to curry favor with the minimizing masses. It doeant matter erything goes with chauvinistic statesman whose only asset Is his burn- ing love for the dear people.
 The truth is that legislative bodies, from Congress down, seem of late to be affected with corporaphobia. If we may coin word to fit the occasion. It looks as if q majority of the law makers have imbibed spite against all corporations. Whenever member of this class can think of nothing else to legislate about he introduces a bill to regulate" some corporation. when ever you see a head stlckin' up. hit it." was the advice of one Irishman to another at DonMybrook Far, and that appears to be the theory on which many legislators act. Death to all corporations might as well be their motto.
 It is doubtless true that much of the drastic legislation enacted or attempt ed proceeds from prejudice or ignor- ance. A well-meaning member may be so Inisled by the demagoguo who has a spite against the railroads, for ex- ample, that he will support legislation which has no shadow of justice to sus- tain 1t. The fact that such legislation Is desired and called for by some prominent official or leader Is allowed to influence men who really have no desire to be unfair and unjust to cor porations In like manner a member who means we'll may not be able to see the effect of a proposed law. He sees what he believes to be wrong which should be corrected and he introduces a bill to correct that evil without be- ing able to foresee the full effects of his measure, or that. while trying to correct one wrong he may really be doing a more serious one. With the hope of accomplishing a good result he really does harm.
 It Is unfortunate from various points of view that such a rabid anti-corpor ation spirit should prevail in any leg islative body. There are corporate evils which should be checked or cor rected, but corporations which exist under the laws are just as much enti- tied to just and fair treatment as in- dividuals are. and real evils cannot be corrected by warning on imaginary ones.