The Topeka state journal., 1907-12-31

by the same revelations of lawlessneSs
and discrimination in railway manage
ment that made the federal rate bill
a necessity. If the state measures have
been too drastic, the cause of the in
justice is not with the national gov
ernment.
Instead of making panic, the ma
tional policy of ending the lawlessness
of corporations in interstate commerce
and of taking away their power of iSsu-
ing, without supervision, stocks and
bonds. will produce a change in their
management and remove one fruitful
cause for loss of public confidence.
Must Not Turn Back.
Is all this to be changed by the panic? :?
Is it proposed, because of it, to repeal
the rate bills? Shall we dismiss the
prosecutions for violation of the anti
trust law? Shall we permit and encour-
age rebates and Determinations by rail-
ways? Is this the condition of sanity
to which we are invited to return? Shall
We join in the sneer at the fight of the
administration for honesty and legalt-
ty in business as youthful attempt
at an alleged moral regeneration OF our
business system? No panic, however
severe, can make wrong right. No man
who sincerely believed the administra-
ton right in it's measures to punish
violations of law, can now be turned
from the earnest support of that policy
today.
believe myself to be as conservative
as any. one within this company 1 be-
lieve that in connection with personal
liberty the right of personal property is
the basis Of all our material progress
in the development of mankind and
that any change in our social and polit-
ical system which impairs the right or
private property and materially dimin-
ishes the motive for the accumulation
of capital by the individual is a blow at
our whole civilization. But no one can
have been an observer of the operations
of the exercise of the right of property
and the accumulation of capital and its
use in business by the individual, and
the combination of capital by the COM
bination of Individuals without seeing
that there are certain limitations upon
the methods in the use of capital and
the exercise of the right of property
that are Indispensable to prevent the
absolute control of the Whole financial
system of the country passing to
small oligarchy of individuals.
The combination of capital is just as
essential to progress as the assembling
of parts of a machine; and hence, cor
porations however large, are lnstru- |
ments of progress. But when they seek |
to use the mere size or amount OF the |
capital which they control to monop- |
olize the business in which they are en- |
gagged and to suppress competition by |
methods akin to duress, they should be !
by law.
1t Means Socialism.
Again, I earnestly opposed to the
ownership OF the interstate
that are the arterial system or
his country. Those railways should con-
inue to be managed by private corpora
ions. Government ownership OF ralIWays
means state socialism, an increase In the
,ower of the central government Inat
would be dangerous 1t would be long
'tep away from the individualism Wh1ch
t is necessary to retain in order to make
cal progress. But no one could defend
| railway system in which the unlawful
,i17a inDc hU rebates
rwise, were practically without limit IN
he interest of trusts and against the or
,e reached and ended by closely regulat-
ng the railways and putting them under
he tribunal which can insist upon PUBIC
an direct the exact remedy 1or- the
wrong.
If the abuses of monopoly and discrim-
nation can not be restrained, If the con-
entration of power made possible Dy
uch abuses continues and increases ana
is made manifest that under the system
f individualiSm and private property the
tyranny and oppression of an oligarchy or
Tealth can rotrbe avoided, then socialism
yill triumph and the institution of private
roperty will perish. .
The administration has been thus far
uccessful in showing that dangers from !
ldvidualism can be effectively regulated,
nd that abuses in the exercise of private
roperty can be restrained. Thus great {
victory has been won, and
ne coming of socialism has been stayed.
Defines the Issue.
The question which you have ultimately t
} meet is not whether we shall return to 6
condition of unregulated railways and /
nregulated trusts. but it is whether we l
hall maintain a strict system or regula- I
on of railways and trusts whether we t
hall turn the country over to the advo- (
ates of government ownership and state c
0cialism. Any one who seeks a retro g
rade step from the policy of the admin g
- --s 1-1s- ec1 8t4i1 t
, zs- r5r
l