The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-05-30

| far as may be that the proceeds there
/ of shall be devoted to legitimate bus
| mess purposes. In providing against
| over capitalization We shall harm no
| human being who is honest. and we
| shall benefit many. for over caitaliza-
| ton often means an initiation that in
vites business panic: it always con-
ceals the true relation OF the profit
earned to the capital invested creaS-
ing burden of interest payments
which may rebound to the loss alike of
the wage Garner and the general pub
lie. which is concerned in the rates
paid by shippers: it damages the small
investor, discourages thrift, and puts a
premium on gambling and business
trickery
There is an essential difference be
tween private and quasi-publie proper
ty which justifies setting somewhere n
limit beyond which the accommodating
| value in quasi-public properties. due
TO the necessity of a growing communi-
", shall not be capitalized.
Control Over Accounts.
One of the most important features
of the Hepburn Act is its having Civ
en- the commission absolute control
over the accounts of railways The
commission has just issued an order to
the effect that on July 1, next all the
railways of the country subject to the
jurisdiction of the commission must
standardize their accounting methods,
and the commission is now organizing
a bureau of special examiners. whose
duty it will be, among other things, to
see that the books o. the carriers are
kept in conformity with the rules laid
i down by the commission. Thus the
means are already at hand and the ma
chinery already created which when
perfected, will put the public in posi-
tion to know facts, so that the small
I investor can exercise an intelligent
1 judgment when entrusting his money
to the promoters of great railway en-
! terprises. We hope as one of the
chief means for betterment of condi-
/ tons to secure as complete publicity
in the affairs of railroads as now OBJ
tains with regard to national banks.
4 There need be no fear on the part of
investors that this movement for ma
tional supervision and control over
railways will be for their detriment. If
tory of the railway control movement
in such a state as Iowa. 1t would be
hard to find anywhere more pros
porous or more intelligent community;
a community of thriving farmers and
thriving townspeople. Iowa did its
share in the work of building rail
roads when the business was one that
demanded men of the utmost daring
and resourcefulness; men like that gal
liant soldier and real captain of indus
try. Grenville NJ. Dodge: men who ran
risks and performed feats for which
+ it was difficult to make the reward too
high; men who staked everything on
the chance of a business which today
happily involves no such hazards.
Iowa was at length forced to undertake
the work of regulating the railways
within her borders. There was great
cutlery against it. 1t was proclaimed
that such effort would ruin roads al
ready built and prevent building more
But Iowa proceeded with the task. and
! it resulted. not in ruin and stagnation.
but in increased safety and profit TO
the honest investor. Instead of put
ting roads into the hands of receivers.
rescued many of them from receiver
ships
Guarantee is Needed.
No state, of course, can do for the
railways what the national govern
ment has already done for the banks,
and that government should do some
thing analogous for the railways. Ma
tional-bank stocks are bought and sold
largely on the certificate of character
which the government as a result of
its examinations and supervisors,
gives to them. To give another illus
tration from Iowas experience. when
the national banking law was amended
to allow small banks TO take out ma
tional charters. great numbers of the
state banks of that state were reor-
ganized into national institutions. The
investing public was ready to back
with unlimited confidence the institu- /
tions on which the federal government I
had set the seal of its confidence and
approval. The railways have not been
given this certificate of character. un-
der the seal of the national govern
ment, and therefore many people who
invest freely in the shares of banks
are reluctant to buy railroad securi- +
ties. Give them the same guarantees
rs to railroad securities which we now
give them as to national bank shares,
and we would presently see these peo-
pie investing in railroads. and thus
opening a new reservoir from which TO
Sraw the capital now so much needed
for the extension and betterment of the
railroads.
No Hostility in Attitude.
All this, my friends, is substantially
what I have said over and over again.
Surely. it ought not to be necessary 20 4
say that it in no shape or way repre-
sents any hostility to corporations as
such. On the contrary, it means a
frank recognition of the fact that COM
binations of capital, like combinations
of labor. are a natural result of mod
ern conditions and of our national de-
yelopment. As far as in my ability
Fl