The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-20
TAFT OPENS FIGHT.
Continued from Page one.)

|
suppression of abuses which had
grown up in a period of tolerant pros
perity. Passed at the instance of Mr..
Roosevelt, 1t stands as a monument to
| the principle which he has necessarily
maintained in speech and action, that
the laws must be so made that they
can be enforced as we'll against the
sins of the wealthy and the powerful
as against those of the poor.
Recent revelations have emphasized
the pernicious effect. of the socalled
overcapitalization of railroads. A rail-
road company engaged in interstate
commerce should not be permitted to
issue stocks or bonds and put them
on SADIE in the market except after a
certificate by the interstate commerce
| commission that the securities are is
sued with the, approval of the. COM
mission for a legitimate railroad pur-
| pose. The railroads that are honestly
conducted would accept the certificate
| of the commission as valuable one in
| the markets of the world, and only
! railway stock manipulators who look
| to the floating of watered securities as
| their best source of profit would have
reason to complain.
] The measures taken and proposed
are radical, perhaps, but no one can
read the report of the commission on
| the history of the union of the South
ern Pacific and Union Pacific systems
with the Illinois Central sustem with
out trembling at the enormous power
\ that one man, by the uncontrolled use
of the stock and bond issuing power
| of interstate railways under state char
| tiers, has acquired in respect of a vital
part of the country's business and
without looking for some means of
remedying such dangerous tendency
which, if not stopped, will lead to the
absorption of all the railroads of the
country into one hand.
Opposed to Government Ownership.
am opposed to government owner
First-Because existing government
railways are not managed with either
the efficiency or economy of privately
managed roads and the rates charged
are not as low and therefore not as
beneficial to the public.
Second-Because it would involve
an expenditure of certainly $12,OO0,-
000,0 to acquire the interstate rail-
ways and the creation of an enormous
national debt.
Third-Because it would place in the
hands of a reckless executive a power
of control over business and politics
that the imagination can hardly con-
ceive, and would expose our popular
institutions to danger.
Mr.. Bryan is most insistent in dis
cussing rate regula ton that the present
physical value of all roads in the coun-
try should be ascertained for the pur-
post of fixing rates by allowing to the
railroad companies only a fair proht on
such valuation. 1t would doubtless be
found in respect to most of them that
in spite of over-capitalization and lack
of economy in construction, land for
terminals and right of way, and the
cost of construction, have increased so
enormously that the total of their Sc
curities upon which they pay dividends
and interest is not much If any in ex-
cess of present physical value; Physi,
cal valuation, as the, president pointed
out in his Indianapolis speech, and as
the supreme court had in effect said
before him, is only one of number
i T., tho
what is a fair profit upon the invest
ment. tt
Fellow Servant Rule
The most important provision of this
law. however, is that abolishing what
is known as the fellow servant rule, |
by which an employe can not recover
from his employer for injury sustained
the negligence of co-em-
ploye. .+
With these changes, all claims by en- |
ployes against railroad companies, ex- |
cept in few extreme cases, will doubt |
less be settled by the railway COM |
panies without litigation, just as they /
now settle without suit substantially |
all claims for injuries to passengers.
pass now from railway regulation |
and the abuses arising in the discharge |
of a public function to the evils which |
have grown out of the combinations |
existing in private business, and so |
come to the subject of trusts. The
of capital in large plants
est economy is just as necessary as /
the assembling of the parts of a ma
chine to the economical and more rap
i'd manufacture of what in old times
IVES made by hand. The government
should not interfere with the one any
more than the other. In the proper
operation of competition the public will
soon share with the manufacturer the
however such combinations not only
lower the cost to themselves, but are
able to control the market and main
tain or raise the old prices, the pub
lie derives no benefit and is helpless
in the hands of a monopoly
There must be an element of duress
in the conduct of its business toward
the customers in the trade and its COM
oetitors before mere aggregation OF
olant becomes an unlawful monopoly
It is perfectly conceivable that in the
interest of economy of production,
great number of plants may be legiti-
nately assembled under the ownership
IF one corporation. In such a case it
s either not a trust, If the term In
wolves unlawfulness, or it is a lawful
rust if a trust merely means a COM
oany. which has assembled large part
If the manufacturing plant, of any
product.
will not be excluded by the mere ag-
yregation of many existing plants I'M
Ter one company, unless the company
hereby effects great economy or takes
some Illegal IH0lIlOO " dNOlQ COLupSll- !
ion and to perpetuate a hold on the
business.
Secret Rebates.
Perhaps the most effective method
n the past for an unlawful trust to
maintain itself has been to secure re-
oates or other unlawful advantage in
transportation, by threat of withhold
ng business from the carrier. This
S undoubtedly what has enabled the
standard Oil company and the sugar
rust and other great combinations to
cap an illegal harvest and to drive all
from the field.
Mr.. Bryan asks me what I would
10 with the trusts. I answer that 1