Arizona republican., 1907-11-20
.L'ETAT, CYST MOI.
Does Everything Depend on the En-
 Tightening and Wish of one Man?

The famous remark attributed to
 Louis XIV, ''The State, That is my self" must naturally occur to many minds in, connection with contempor- ary American history. That the well fare. nay. the very existence. of vast
 industrial enterprises. the stability of public credit and the confidence of the fpeople should depend upon the action or the favor of single individual,
 no matter how exalted he may be.
 constitutes a condition of affairs that | may we'll give pause to the thoughtful student of the modern fruits of demo-
 cracy. It certainly represents a condi-
 tion which was never contemplated by
 the framers of our form government.
 and one that is without question ultra constitutional. So long as the repub- lie continues to be governed by writ ten law, and so long as the functions of government continue to be specially apportioned among Executive, Legis- lature and judiciary, the presence of the nations captains of industry at the White House. seeking the approval of the Executive financial expansion. con- stitutes anomaly which might conceiv- ably become dangerous to the free in- stttutions of the country
 The particular instance which has suggested this train of thought was
 the visit to the President by two off cers of the United States Steel Cor poration to ascertain whether he would prove hostile to the proposed absorption of the Tennessee Coal and Iron company by that corporation to avert further national financial dis asters. It amouts to this. if the stories from Washington correctly rep resent the meaning of the recent con- ference at the White House. that the president is asked in advance to pass on momentous questions of law and practice and to give assurances that he will or will not interfere through the agencies of government under his con- trol and direction. In other words. is the business of the country, in it's na- tional aspects. to be governed not by the ordinary processes of law. as by legislation established, but by the will of an individual? N
 As an abstract question of national policy it makes no difference what the circumstances in which such a situa- tion has arisen, how exalted the pat riotism and how inerrant the judgment of the official thus made the arbiter of national prosperity and progress;
 the precedent is fraught with gravest dangers. It is a departure from the principles of individual enterprise and individual responsibility which lie at the foundation Of modern commerce and industry and points to the return of conditions when the favor of rulers was the dominant influence in the af-
 fairs of men.
 It may seem an exaggeration to sound so serious a note of warning, and it is but just to say that the pres ence at the White House of the repre- sentatives of national corporations may be interrupted as indicating senscitiveness to the control of the law that has been too often absent in the past. But the position is none the less dangerous because the sanction and the judgment of an idividual are sought in place of recourse to the methods and the tribunals as by law established. It is the possibility of the of the precedent thus made that the peril lies. and the pres ent delicate balance of public credit and confidence. and the abnormal de- pendence of the countrys industrial security upon the policy and the de- clarations of a single public servant.
 show that that peril is not an imagi- nary one.