The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1907-12-03

Inevitably to threaten injury. II
Is unfortunate that our present laws
should forbid all comhina lions instead
| OF sharply discriminating between
those combinations which do good and
those combinations which do evil =
Often railroads would like to combine
for the purpose Of preventing a big
shipper from maintaining improper ad-
yantages at the expense of small ship
pers and OF the general public. Such a
combination. instead OF being forbid
/ den by law, should be favored.
1t Is public evil to have on the
/ statute books a law incapable of full
enforcement, because both judges and
jurles realize that its full enforcement
would destroy the business of the
country. for the result is to make de-
cent men violators of the law against
their will and to put premium on the
behavior of the willful wrongdoers
Such q result In turn tends to throw
the decent man and the willful wrong
doer into close association and in the
|
latter's level, for the man who be,
comes a lawbreaker in one way un-
happily tends to lose all respect for
law and to be Willing to break it In
many ways. No more scathing con-
demnation could be visited upon law
than Is contained in the words Of the
interstate commerce commission when
in commenting upon the fact that the
numerous joint traffic associations do
technically violate the law they say;
The decision Of the United States su.
preme court In the transmissouri case
and the Joint Traffic association case
has produced no practical effect upon
the railway operations Of the country
Such associations. in fact exist now
as they did before these decisions and
with the same general effect. In
| justice to all parties we ought prob
ably to add that it is difficult to see
how our interstate railways could be
operated with due regard to the inter
! est Of the shipper and the railway
without concerted action Of the kind
{ afforded through these associations
This means that the law as con
! strued by the supreme court is such
that the business of the country can.
not be conducted without breaking it,
AS l have elsewhere said:
! Not New Proposition.
Cali this is substantially what I have
said over and over again. Surely 1t
ought not to be necessary to say that
it in no shape or way represents any
hostilit.s to corporations as such On
the contrary, it means frank recogni
ton Of the fact that combinations OF
capital, like combinations of labor, are
a natural result Of modern conditions
and of our national development. AS
far as in my ability lies, my endeavo1
is and will be to prevent abuse of
power by either and to favor both sc
long as they do WELL The aim of the
national government is quite as much
to favor and protect honest corpora
tons, honest business men of wealth.
as to bring to justice those individuals
and corporations representing dishon-
est methods. Most certainly there will
be no relaxation by the government
authorities in the effort to get at any
great railroad wrecker-any man who
by clever swindling devices robs in
vestors, Expresses Wageworkers and
does injustice to the general public
But any such move as this is in the
interest Of honest railway operators,
of honest corporation and of those
who when they invest their small saw
ings in stocks and bonds wish to be
assured that these will represent
money honestly expended for legitimate
business purposes: To confer upon
the national government the power for
which I asked would be check upon
oyercapitalization. But it alone would
mean an increase in the value, an in
crease in the safety, of the stocks and
bonds of law abiding, honestly man
aged railroads and would render it far
easier to market their securities l
believe in proper publicity. There has
been complaint Of some of the investi-
| cations recently carried on, but those
who complain should put the blame
where it belongs-upon the misdeeds
which are done in darkness and not
upon the Investigations which brought
them to light. The administration is
responsible for turning on the light,
but it is not responsible for what the
light showed. ask for full power to
be given the federal government, be-
cause no single state can by legisla-
ton effectually cope with these pow
erful corporations engaged in inter
state commerce and, while doing them
full justice, exact from them in return
full justice to others. The conditions
of railroad activity, the conditions of
our immense interstate commerce, are
such as to make the central govern
ment alone competent to exercise full
supervision and control.
Grave Results Of Abuses.
"The grave abuses in Individual
cases Of railroad management in the
past represent wrongs not merely to
the general public, but. above all,
wrong to fair dealing and honest cor
porations and men Of wealth, because
they excite popular anger and dis
trust which from the very nature of
the case tend to include in the sweep
of its resentment good and bad alike.
From the standpoint of the public l
cannot too earnestly say that as soon
as the natural and proper resentment
aroused by these abuses becomes in
discriminate and unthinking it also be-
! comes NOT merely 11nuico and unfair