The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-30
PERNIoIoUs AorrYITT.

That Is the expression, if We are not mistaken, Grover Cleveland used when he was President of the United States to describe the performances of federal office holders who gave more attention to the political game than they did to the jobs. We have been surprised that some one has not resurrected it to fitly describe the an- tics of those who would bring every form of human endeavor under gov- ernmental control It has been perni- cious activity, and unless 1t is checked as President Cleveland checked 1t in the field of politics, there may be trouble.
 The Boston Transcript, an ably ed- tied and conservative newspaper, has been figuring up the extent to which the States of the Union have gone this year to increase their control of public service corporations It finds that nearly 300 bills have been pass ed by the various legislatures affect ing the railroad interests of the coun- try, the more conspicuous of them aimed at the rate charges. Says the Transcript: There are twenty States, or nearly half of the whole bunch, that have either reduced rates on passenger traffic or have taken pre- liminary steps with that in prospect" !" Tt would be preposterous to assert that these States have been we'll or ganized for this undertaking. It would be no more than a simple statement of fact to say that in prac- tically every instance the acting State has been inspired to act not from any demonstrated injustice done, but wholly on account of the wild de- nunciation which has been visited up on all chartered enterprises which have done well and pay dividends This is pernicious activity in the halls of legislation and to be endured with out more or less violent protest is asking more than human nature Is capable of. As the Transcript says: What @ grist of special labor has been accumulated by all this leglsla- tion for the Supreme court of the United States" What indeed
 Governor Hughes of New York, who has been stunning example in of- flee of a sane and effective political leader, has referred to this season of pernicious activity though not in those words. Tn recent speech to the up country folks in the Empire State he said: 1T have been sitting there in Albany trying to maintain a few obvious principles of our demo. cratic government, and I have been appalled, at the enormous mass of lo- cal special legislation that I had tn sign simply because of the other spe- cial legislation which had preceded it. The important principle is that We should settle these things by general legislation and not by laws for spe- cial government" Tn other words tEe legislative record of the year in most of the States of the Union, following the pernicious activity of Congress, shows that the special legislation hab- it has run riot and has added to It's practice of chartering corporations by special act the newly discovered habit of conducting their business for them. AS we have said over and over again, 1t is one thing to enact laws for tho protection of the travelling and freight ing public and an entirely different lthing to undertake to manage the railroads of the country even to the extent of determining their rates. A Connecticut legislature, which under took to prescribe the rate to be charg- ed by the State railroads, might bring ruin to thousands of residents who could not afford to live without the concessions made the commuter.
 Plainly the duty of the States is to legislate generally for the commun-
 ities they serve and then leave to the men who have invested their money
 and their brains and are large em.
 ployers of labor to work out the prob.
 lems which are characteristic of theil
 businesses. Governor Hughes of New
 York is doing the finest kind of mis
 sionary work in teaching this philoso
 phy.