The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-31


 | the light of public criticism tDe viola tion of the law by influential and pow l erful corporations and tn cir prosecu- tion. Through the investigation of national and state tribunals, there have been revealed, as I have already said l breaches of trust, stock jobbing, over issue of stocks and mismanagement in some of our largest corporations. They have properly been severely condemned by all including the President. Knowi- edge of these things doubtless affected our credit in Europe and hastened the panic; but hose who are morally re- sponsible for such a result are the guilty managers, not those who in the course of their official duty have made i known to the business world the facts and commented on them.
 "It is said the administration has arraigned the whole business communi- ty as dish onest I deny 1t.
 Lawbreakers Condemned.
 "The President has condemned the law breakers. He has convinced those who have unlawfully accumulated enormous powers and capital that they are not immune. He has put she fear of the law in their hearts. They have been cute enough to attempt to pro- tect themselves by giving the impress sion that his action has been directed l against the whole business community. It is true that the business men of our community, as a whole, are honest and their methods are sound. The Presi- dent has never said otherwise.
 Again, it is said that the rate bilh for which the administration is re- sponsible caused the present panic. l Could anything be more absurd? The 1 object of the rate bill was merely to bring the railroads under closer super vision of a tribunal which could act upon complaints of individuals sui fering from their injustice. The im- mediate effect of it's passage was the voluntary reduction of rates. Subse- | quently, under normal circumstances, justifying it, the rates of the railways l generally were increased. The con- tinuance of the abuses of the railway management were made by the rate bill ! much more difficult; but the rate bill has not had the slightest effect upon the legitimate business earnings of the ! railways. The utter hollowness in the cry that the rate bill caused the panic is seen in the fact that those who now venture to advance this proposition have been for more than year con tending that the rate bill was hum bug and a fraud because it had no ef- feet whatever, because it had given promise of a reduction of rates and no reduction of rates followed
 Stdte Lc9iSidtiofI.
 .'Then state legislation against rail- roads is looked to a cause for shrink age in the value of the stocks and for the panic.
 "Mr Roosevelt and the administration are not responsible for this. It was oc- casioned blythe same revelations Of law lessness and discrimination in railway management that made the federal rate l bill a necessity. If the state measures n injustice is not with the national govern | ment The business men in the past have | sympathzed with the effort to eradicate from the business system of this coun- l try the influence and control of those i who have achieved success by illegal methods. Is all this to be changed by panic? Is it proposed because of It to repeal the rate bill? Shall we dismiss the prosecutions for violations of the l antitrust law? Shall we permit and en- courage rebates and discrimination by railways? Is this the condition of sanity A to which we are invited to return? Snail 8'we join in the sheer at the fight of the administration for honesty and legality in business as a youthful attempt at an alleged moral regeneration of our busi- ness system? No panic, however severe, can make wrong right.
 Rights of Property.
 T believe myself to be as conserva- tive as any one within this country l be- l lieve that in connection with personal lip- erty the right of personal property is the basis of our progress in the development of mankind, and that any ehange in our | social and political system which 1mpairs the right of private property and ma | terially diminshes the motive for the ac- emulation of capital by the individual IS a blow at our whole civilization. But no haxr observer ercise of the right of the property and the accumulation of capital and its use in business by the individual and by combinations of individuals without see ing that there are certain limitations on 1 the methods in the use of capital ana the exercise of property that are lndls- pensable to prevent the absolute control of the whole financial system of the coun- 1 try to a small oligarchy of individuals.
 "The combination of capital is just as | essential to progress as to the parts or d machine and hence corporations, however | large, are instruments of progress. But when they seek to use the mere size l or amount of the capital which they con- trol to monopolze the business in which they are engaged and to suppress compe- tition by methods akin to duress, they l should be restrained by law.
 Government Ownership.
 Again I am earnestly opposed to the 1 government ownership of the interstate railways that are the arterial systems of the country Those railways should coll 1 tfnue to be managed by private corpora lions. Government ownership of railways mean state socialism, an increase in the l power of the central government that 1 would be dangerous.
 .'The question which you have ult- mately to meet, Is not whether we shall return to a condition of unregulated rail- 1 ways and unregulated trusts, but 1t is 1 whether we shall maintain a strict sys- 1 tenn of regulation of railways and trusts, or whether we shall turn the country over to the advocates of government 1 ownership and state socialism. Any one who seeks a retrograde step from the policy of the administration on the theory 1 that 1t would be a real step toward con | servatism is blind to every political sign | of the times.
 Tn this widespread catastrophe, l have | the deepest sympathy with the great body of business men and wageearners, 1 who I know are honest and who have to bear the brunt of it, and l feel the great l est solicitude and anxiety for their re- l covery. But I urge them to not allow 1 their resentment Nat conditDns to be l made weapon against the public veal MOST REMARKASLE YEAR
 IN AMERICAN FINANCE