The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-22

derful and unexpected increase in the industries of the country which had been going on with gigantic strides since the silver craze was settled in 1896, until Roosevelt began his as- sault on the public service corpora
 tions about two years ago, by de-
 manding and finally getting substan- tially personal control of railroad
 rates. For his Interstate commerce Icommissioners are removable, at his sAole will. for what he may deem "in- efficiency neglect of duty" or "mis- conduct" And so you have the un- usual spectacle. in our republic with its checks and counterchecks of Presi-
 dent Roosevelt in daily conference with his Interstate commerce commis- sioners, who take their orders from him, as if he were, as he is, an abso- lute monarch. Over all the interstate | transportation interests of the coun- | try, supplemented, as 1t has been, by State commissioners and State leglsla-
 lures, and State governors, who are | following in his wake, and filling up,
 to the full measure, State absolutism
 in the one great industry-upon which
 all others depend.
 It is clear what is going on. Private capital is not coming out-will not
 come out, to meet these demands of the public service corporations, ex- cept at rates of interest or return
 which these corporations, under pres ent conditions, are or will be unable
 to pay. True, they have borrowed i'm mense sums, the current year. at in~
 creasing rates of interest but President Hill asserts that this capital has been
 used to pay up floating indebtedness. Why will not new capital come out, to
 meet these imperious demand? The
 answer is two fold. Either there is nos sufficient capital to come out or it
 has been scared, so it will not come
 out, What is capital? To great extent 1t is credit, confidence. Substi- tute for credit and confidence, discred- l 1t and distrust, and your capital for the time being at least does not exist,
 and your capital is wiped out. True,
 you have the same stores, shops, rail- roads, laborers, etc, but their value has substantially disappeared under
 the blighting, whitening blasts of gen. eral distrust.
 Have we a case of general world wide distrust incipient in some coun- tries, more advanced in others, or
 have we case of worldwide conf-
 dence and credit? It is a mockery of
 the truth to say that there is such
 general confidence and credit and if
 the real difficulty is want of capital,
 there would not be such increasing distrust. In the United States, the
 cause of the distrust is obvious. In
 England the same causes are operative. as in this country perhaps it is more pronounced there than here--the reckless public and popular demand of
 control and interference with public service corporations. The great rail- road stocks of England, supposed, un- til recently, to have been the safest investments of private capital have shrunk in value, although with in
 creasing business, to about one-half
 of their former investment value, and the crusade goes nlerrily on Canada
 seems to be exempt-so far, from this industrial depression That great and
 growing country seems to go on it's
 way, free from banking and monetary 1 troubles, and to have had abundance of capital for its own use and some left over for us, until we began to lose | their confidence. But her legislation l is better than ours and she has not vet lost her common sense.
 After all there is nothing so very surprising about all this matter, We
 have had unexampled prosperity. For
 the last dozen or more years almost all
 have done we'll, some very well, and a few astonishingly we'll. The methods
 of those few have in fact been the
 methods by which substantially all
 have profited (For you will hardly find
 a merchant or manufacturer in New
 Haven, but solicited and took his re-
 bates.) But these few have excited
 the public press to remarkable de-
 gree. The "barons in coal, beef, rail-
 roads and other industries have made
 the newspapers very salable. So the
 public has been educated to believe
 it has been wronged. In fact, the pub
 lie has got on very well. Never since
 God Almighty made this world has there been such abundance and indul-
 gence in the comforts and luxuries of living, as there has been of late,
 among all classes, in this country and
 the public has not been wronged. But it is characteristic of such conditions
 that the general public becomes insist
 ent on what 1t thinks are it's rights. It
 believes it can afford to insist. It
 is here and wonder, following any crier, if he is only loud enough to
 make himself heard It disregards
 the fundamental principles which gov
 ern credit. It becomes madly covetous and exasperated at the sight of great wealth It is utterly indifferent how it treats great wealth, Roosevelt him self advocating an inheritance tax, which above certain indefinite amount, is to be 100 per cent, or con- fiscatory, The public forgets that
 wealth is but a comparative term that
 there is substantially no wealth In our civilization, except it be employed in
 industrial affairs or distributed in wise or reckless expenditure. It makes no difference that John D. is in fact the
 greatest public benefactor of the age in any country. Prosperity seems harder to bear than diversity, for in
 times of prosperity we are apt to for
 get that we cannot manage the affiars
 of others, as vel as they can, and we
 are quite inclined to enjoy ourselves.
 without much regard that it Is at the exnense of the other fellow. Average