The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-31

d tending that the rate bill was a hum bugga a fraud because it had no eff feet whatever because 1t had given promise of reduction of rates and no reduction of rates followed
 Railroad Legislation.
 Then state iegsslatiVh against rail roads Is pointed to as cause for shrinkage in tho value of the stocks and for the panic. that President Roosevelt and, the administration is responsible for this. 1t was brought on by the same revelations of lawlcss- ness and discrimination in railway management that made the Federal rate bill necessity. If the state measures have been too drastic, the cause of the injustice is not with the national government.
 The business men in the past have sympa thized with the effort to eradi- cate from the business system of the country the influence and control of those who have achieved sdccess by H. legal methods. Is all this to be chang ed by the panic? Is it proposed be- cause of 1t to repeal the rate bill? Shall we dismiss the prosecutions for violations of the antitrust law. Shall we permit and encourage rebates and discrinina ations by railways? Is this the condition of sanity to which we are invited to return? Shall we join in tho sheer at the fight of the admins tration for honesty and legality in bus mess as youthful attempt at an all legcd moral regeneration of our bus mess system? No panic. however se- were. can make wrong right.
 'I believe myself to be as conserva- tive as any one within this country. 1 believe that in connection with per sonal liberty, the right of personal property Is the basis of all our material In q nf ms p kind and that any change in our social and political system which impairs the right of private property and material ly diminishes the motive for the accu mutation of capital by the individual. is a blow at our whole civilization. But no one can have been an observer of the exercise of the right of the prop erty and the accumulation of d capital and it's use in business by the individ ual and the combination of capital by the combination of individuals, without seeing that there are certain limita- tions on the methods In the use of cap itaI and the exercise of property that are indispensable to prevent tho abso- lute control of the whole financial sys- tom of the country passing to a small oligarchy of individuals.
 The combination of capital is just as | essential to progress as the assemb- | ling of the parts of a machine. and | hence corporations, however large, are | instruments of progress. But when l they seek to use the mere. sizea or | amounts of the capital which they Con | trol to monopolize the business in which they are engaged and to sup press competition by methods akin to duress, they should be restrained by law.
 Again, I am earnestly opposed to | the government ownership of the in | to Ixua hat Q n | system of the country. Those railways should continue to be managed by pri | vate corporations. Government owner ship of railways means state socialism an increase in the power of the cen tral government that would be dan gerous.
 ''The question which you havel ulti- mately to meet is not whether we1 shall return to a condition of unregelated railways and unregulated trusts. but it Is whether we shall maintain strict system of regulation of railways and trusts or whether we shall turn the country over to the advocates of gov Arnment ownership and state bocial- ism. Any one who seeks a retregrade step from the policy of the admiAistra- ton on the theory that it would be a real step toward conservatism iS blind to every political sentiment of the timex.
 Tn this widespread catastrophe I have the deepest sympathy with the great body of business men and wage earners who I know are honest hnd i who have to bear the brunt of 1t, Rnd I feel the greatest soliclsude and anx-
 iety for their recovery. But I urge them to not allow their resentment of conditions to be made weapon against
 the public veal.
 Congressman Shirley Speaks.
 Congressman Sherley of Kentudky
 was the next sneaker. He criticized the growing tendency toward centralt- zation and what he termed over-legis- lation. He said he was not pessi- mist but that some tendencies in
 American life were not good, if not checked. National stability had been established by. enlarging it's powers until we had government. not so much by legislation as by departments, gov ernment which was not the expression of the will of the people. but of the men in departments. He questioned if 4
 was wise to centralize power in the i executive instead of the legislative de, partments from which. he declared had come eXtravaga great losses and loss of seifreliance.
 Senator Joseph F. Johnston of Ala hama spoke briefly. The only refer ence made te the Presidency. direct or indirect by Secretary Taft during the day was at the Elis;eum Club, where after the guests had been invited to shake hands with the next President of the United States" Secretary Taft responded:
 Tt is d real delight for me to shake , hands under that condition. but I want you to understand that there is no guarantee in this contract"