Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-09-27
STATES RIGHTS
COY. FOLKS PLEA.
C0MM0NWEALTHS MAKE GREAT
CORPORATIONS AND SHOULD
GOVERN THEM, HE SAYS.
SEES GENERALIZATION PERIL.
Uncovering of Official and Business Cor
ruptl0n Not Detriment but an Aid
to American Prosperity

JAMESTOWN, Va, Sept 21.-[ Spe-
cial. Gov. Joseph Folk of Missouri at
the Missouri day celebration at the ex-
position today pointed out as a peril the
tendency toward Capitalization of the
American government and declared for
state rights particularly in regard to
dealing with dishonest corporations with
in its limits.
THE states created the corporations"
he said Shall they be denied the con-
troll of their creatures?'
This is the greatest nation in the
world. 1t is great because it is a nation
of self governing states. Let us keep IL
So for its decline will commence when
the self government of the states, the
fountain head Of its strength is taken
away.
Folk Sees More Prosperity.
Gov. Folk also declared that the pun
ishment Of guilty corporations was not
depressing and he said he saw greater
prosperity ahead.
Gov Folk said in part:
The magical age i'll which we live is
the result OF the idea that the liberty
OF the individual is a right, not a priv
llege. The nearer we keep to this idea,
the more real progress we shall make,
and the further we get from it, the more
removed we shall be from the ideal re-
public, towards which those who believe
in the liberty of the individual as Il right,
not as Il privilege, are striving.
Liberty as right Of the individual.
not privilege, does not mean that each
person may do as he pleases without
limitation. The liberty that was guar
anteed by the founders of this govern
ment is liberty under the law.
Nations Future Brightest.
The greatest enemy to the liberty
of the individual is privilege-the priv
lege of lawlessness, the privilege con-
ferred by law and the privilege of
monopol y There has been a great
awakening of the public conscience dur
ing the past few years as to the privi-
lege OF laWlessness. This public con-
science, goes marching on day by day
correcting some evil; day after day
remedylng some wrong.
There are some who see danger to
our institutions in the agitation resulting
from the exposures of wrong doing i'll
official and business life. 10 my mind,
the hope Tor the perpetuity of this gov
eminent by the people was never bright
er than now. This awakening of the
public conscience does not proceed from
a spirit of discomfort, but comes from
the QulckenIng of the moral sense of the
average individual. 1t is simply a de
termination to stamp out the stains of
dlshonOr in public life and the things
that Cypress i'll private life; a firm re-
solve that the government shall be repre-
sentative of the liberty of the people,
not Of the privilege of special inter
ests. The great combinations of CAPT
tai that have grown up in the past few
years require strictcr rules of reguIa-
ton as to their conduct than were need
ed III years gone by ii relation to indi-
vldual action. In exposing and prose
cutting the. wrong doing of these aggre-
cations of wealth the liberty of the
average individual is being protected.
Those whose business methods will not
stand the light of publicity have no
wrongdOing and are hurt they are not
injured by the people, but by the wrong
which they do.
States Duty and It's Right.
I'm the fight against the privilege of
lawlesSnesS there have arisen questions
between the federal and state govern
ments rs to the consideration of the
powers Of each. If the people of the
states cannot be trusted to enact valid
laws with respect to corporations, by
what process of reasoning can it be as-
sumed that they have the capacity to
legislate for the individual citizen. The
states create the corporations shall they
L
The regulation Of interstate commerce
must necessarily be by the federal gov
ernment; but as to commerce within the
states, it is the right and duty of the
state to regulate it. In ordinary lines of
business, competition can be trusted to
regulate prices. and protect the people
With monopoly, however, the law must
supply the regulation which in the case
OF enterprises open to all is furnished
by competition. Railroads are necessary
to the development of our vast resources,
and are entitled to fair treatment the
same as individuals. But unrestraincd
their power to fix rates is the power
70 tax, and the power to tax is the power
to destroy.
The danger to the integrity of the
states can best be checked by the states
exercising their rights of self-goyernment
IN the enactment of good laws, and en-
forcement of those laws. The states
that allow their self-government to be
spread out and dissipated among many
subdivisions, until it becomes so weak
as to mean but little, are doing much to
aid in the plan of those who argue for
more centralized government at the
nations capital.
States Great as Nation.
This is the greatest nation in the
world, but it is no greater than the states
that compose it. 1t is great because it
US keep it so, for its decline will com
mence when the elf-government of the
states. the fountain of its strength is
taken away.
In constructing this great govern
ment. our forefathers exercised a wis
dom unsurpassed in the annals of man
kind. They founded a government guar
anteelng rights to the individual never
obtained or exercised by any other peo-
pie. They fought i'll order to give us
this nation with its blessings of freedom
1t is for us to preserve it as a govern
ment of the people, for the people and
by the people,
Gov. Folk held a public reception at
the close of the speech and after an OF
fetal luncheon reviewed great mill
tary parade.