Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-09-01
SHAMEFUL RECORD

- out of the uncontrolled and large
| ly irresponsible actions of selfish and
lunscrupulous men controlling large ag-
gregations of capital, and especially
great public service corporations, have
tended to call attention to the fact
that the United States is the only civ
ilized country of the world whose laws
or rather lack Of laws, not only permits
but appears to invite the exploitation
of it's citizens by constituencies pro-
moters and masters of what has come
to be called ".high finance" for their
own special benefit and the accomplish
ment of their selfish ends.
In his speech recently delivered at
Provincetown. Mass, President Roose-
welt said: During the last few years
we have taken marked strides in adj
vance along the road of proper reg
ulation of these railroad corporations,
but we must not stop in the work.
The national government should ex-
ercise over them a similar supervision
and control to that which it exercises
over national banks. We can do this
only by proceeding further along the
lines marked out by the recent national
legislation
This, of course, refers particularly TO
the recommendations recently made by
the interstate commerce commission to
the effect that the commission should
be given authority to regulate the
issue of stocks and bonds by railroad
companies and the expenditure of their
assets. Such power of regulation to
be used to protect the interests of
stockholders against such conscience
less manipulation of their properties
as characterized the Alton scandal,
and also for the purpose of the better
enforcement of the law forbidding the
ACQUISITION by railroads of the control
of parallel and competing lines.
The comment of some of the foreign
press upon this recommendation of the
president should be illuminating to the
average American citizen who has
failed in the past to grasp fully the
extent to which the lack of proper leg
islative control of certain Individuals
and interests have exposed him and
the financial affairs of his country to
corrupt and selfish exploitation.
The London Times, in commenting
upon the presidents speech. and es-
pecially that part of it dealing with
the railroads of the country. said:
at is worth while remembering that
there have been periods of stringency
and falling securities before now when
there has been no president proposing
to deal with dishonest corporations.
We may therefore. receive with con-
siderable reserve the theory that
Roosevelt's policy is responsible for
things at least susceptible of totally |
different explanation.
perhaps the best way to discount
increased clamor about the presidents
attacks upon property is to remember
that he is only trying to place the rail-
ways in position which they have
always occupied in this country COM
pelling them, for example, to obtain
the consent of the interstate commits
sion before watering capital by new
issues"
In its comments upon the same
speech the London Daily Telegraph
said:
Even from the electoral point Of
view the president has never been so
imprudent as he has sometimes seemed
to hasty observers. He knows that,
short of business smash, the Repub-
lican party must follow him or be
ruinously divided. For the great cor
porations the choice lies now between
reform and revolution, and they must
presently begin to ask themselves
whether any power but Roosevelt's own
can still the tempest he has raised"
The London Tribune in this connec-
ton said:
sTf Roosevelt succeeds in bringing
to an end evils which have arisen in
connection with American corporations
he will have removed source of dis
turbance to the finance and commerce
of the world"
The truth of the whole business is
that the absolute absence of legislation
framed for the purpose of protecting
the public against the Vaccinations OF
the so-called "kings of finance" who
have piled up their huge fortunes by
manipulating the security issuing
power of public service corporations,
has exposed the general investing pub
lie of this country to perils from which
the like public of other civilized coun-
tries have been protected since the
DAYS of the collapse of the Mississippi
Bubble.
1t has also produced class of able
men whose selfishness unrestrained by
any proper legal checks has placed
many of the great corporate interests
of the country in positions which have
made them oppressors of the public
and menaces to the financial stability
and well-being of the country, rather
than the servants Of the public and
the supporters and sustainers Of the
business prosperity of the nation.
The effect that the unrestrained ac-
+;o,,s of +l,ie ola &C of "kingS of finance