The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-22


governments as to the construction of
the powers Of each. If the people of
the states cannot be trusted to enact
valid laws with respect to corpora
lions, by what process of reasoning can
1t be assumed that they have the ca
pacity to legislate for the individual
citizen? The states create the corpo-
rations. Shall they be denied the con-
troll of their creatures? The regula-
ton of interstate commerce must neces-
sarjly be by the federal government,
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 a 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 unrestrained, their power to Ak
rates Is the power to tax and the
power to tax Is the power to destroy.
They have no more right to carry the
freight of one man for less cost than
another under the same circumstances,
or to carry one man free and charge
another, than a tax collector would
tax. to collect half of anothers and to
put all of the burden on still another.
How Evils Can Be Checked.
THE, danger to the integrity of the
states can best be checked by the
states exercising their rights of self
government in the enactment OF good
laws, and enforcement of those laws,
The states that allow their self-gov
eminent to be spread out and dissipaJ-
ed among many subdivisions. until II
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.
This is the greatest nation in the
world, but it Is no greater than the
states that compose it. II is great be-
cause it is a nation of selfgoVern.ng
states. Let US keep it so, for it's de-
cline will commence when the self
government of the states. the fountain
of its strength, is taken away.
In a sense, every governmental
question is a question of right or
wrong. The tariff is a moral question.
A tariff, deliberately designed to Gre
ate monopoly and to give few people
the right to prey upon the rest of the
people, is prohibited by the moral law
the law Of conscience. But consid-
cred purely upon an economic basis,
the time has come when a monopoly
creating tariff cannot be fairly defend
ed. International commerce can never
be a one-sided transaction Mutually
is the primary law of trade. Trade re-
strictions breed trade oscillations; and
so long as we pursue a policy of hos
tile exclusiveness we can never hope
to dominate the commercial marts Of
the world. This can only be done by
reciprocal trade relations with the
! leading nations.
'In constructing this great govern
ment, our fOrefathers exercised a wis
dom unsurpassed in the annals of man
kind. They founded a government
guaranteeing rights to the individual
never obtained or exercised by any
other people. They fought in order 20
give US this nation with it's blessings
of freedom. 1t is for us to preserve
1t as a government of the people, for
the people and by the people Let us
endeavor to main inviolate the prin-
ciple OF popular self-government and
recognize the largest liberty of the in
dividual citizen consistent with law
and order; unite In enforcing the laws
and in counteracting any attempt to
| defy them; destroy the privileges of
lawlessness and the unjust privileges
conferred by law, and maintain the
rights of all by causing each to respect
the rights of the other. Let us not seek
as a remedy for existing evils less
democracy, but more democracy; not
more money, but more manhood: not
more cunning, but more conscience.
Let US hand down the doctrine that
liberty is the right of the individual,
not a privilege to the coming genera
| ton, to the end that the individual
may be uplifted more and more as time
goes by until the mighty mission of
I -. ~
the benedictions of liberty is accom-
| plished.