The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-02

m:a ma children. ' wish to ensurs as fAtr treatment for the small town ss for the big city: for the small shippsr as for the big shipper.
 It ie becauss, in my judgment. pub- lic ownership of railroads is highly rr- desirable, and would probably in this country entail far-reaching disaster. that wish to see suci, supervision and regulation of them In he interest of the public as will make It evident there is no need for public ownership. sTho opponents of Government regu- lation dweii on the dificulties to be encountered and the intricate and inc ,volved nature of the problem. Their contention is true. It is complicated and delicate problem and all kinds Of dimcuIties are sure to arise in con. nection with any plan of solution. while no plan will bring all benefits hoped for by its more optimistic ad- herents But while I fully admit the dinicuities in the way. do not Tor moment admit that these difficulties warrant us in stopping in our effort to secure a wise and just system.
 | "At present we face such utter lack of supervision. such freedom from the restraints of law, that excellent men have often been literally forced into doing what they depiored, because oth- | erWiSe they were loIt dt lAo iuStSI VA interruptions competitors. To rail at and assail tho men who have done as l they best could under such conditions. ] accomplishes little. What we need to , do 10 to develop an orderly system; and i such a system can only come through the gradually increased exercise of the right of eflicient Government control" In his message to Congress at the beginning of the first session of the Fifty-ninth Congress, December 5. 1905. ] the President said
 The people of this country continue to enjoy great prosperity. Undouhted. l ly there will be ebb and flow in such
 prosperity. and this eob and now wiit I be felt more or less by all members Of the community, both by the deserving | and the undeserving.
 "A panic brought on by the specu- lative folly of part of the business community would hurt the whole bus mess community. Rut such stoppage of welfare would not be lasting. Not Hostile to Corporations. Something can be done by legisia- tion to help the general prosperity: but | no such help of a permanently bene- Acial character can be given to the less able and less fortunate, save as | the results of a policy which shall ous and efficient people who act de- gently; and this is only another way of saying that any benefit which comes | to the less able and less fortunate | must of necessity come even more to | the more able and more fortunate.
 "The fortunes amassed through cor porate organizati tions are now so large | and vest such power in those that wfeld them, as to make 1t matter of neces- sity to give to the sovereign--that Is. ] to the Government which represents | the people as a wholesome effective power of supervision over their cor- porate use.
 ations. This Is an age of combinations, and any effort to prevent all combina- ton will be not ony useless, but in the end vicious, because of the con- tempt for law which the failure to en-
 force law inevitably produces. The
 corporation has come to stay. just as the trade union has come to stay.
 Experience has shown conclusively
 that 1t is useless to try to get any ad-
 eauate regulation and supervision of these great corporations by State ac-
 tion. Such regulation and supervision
 can only be effectively exercised by a
 sovereign whose jurisdiction is co-ex-
 tensive with the field of work of the corporation--that is, by the National Government. I believe that this reg
 uIation and supervision can be obtain
 ed by the enactment of laws by the
 Congress. Our steady aim should be
 by legislation, cautiously and careful
 Iy undertaken, but resolutely perse-
 vered in, to assert the sovereignty of the National Government by affirma-
 tive action.
 Tt has been a misfortune that the
 national laws on this subject have
 hitherto been of negative or prohibit tive, rather than an affirmative, kind, and still more that they have in part xtxA ,.N A t~- | effectively prohibited and have in part
 in their prohibitions confounded what should be allowed and what should not l be allowed. It is generally useless to try to prohibit all restraint of com petition, whether this restraint be l reasonable or unreasonable; and where it is not useful 1t Is generally hurt full
 'rwat is neeed is not sweeping pro- hibition of every arrangement, good l or bad, which may tend to restrict l competition, but such adequate su-
 pervision and regulation as will pre-
 vent any restriction of competition
 from being to the detriment of the
 public as we'll as such supervision and | regulation as will prevent other i abuses in no way connected with re- | rstiction of competition.
 Evils of Over-C -Capitalization l "Of these abuses perhaps the chief. l although by no means, the 4cnly one, 1 is overcapitalization-- generally itself l the result of dishonest promotion l because of the myriad evils 1t brings l in it's train; for such overcapitalization | often means an imitation that Invites
 business panic; it always conceals the | true relations of the profit earned to the capital actually invested, and 1t l creates a burden of interest--pay-
 ments which is a fertile cause of im- l proper reduction or limitation of wag- l es. Until the national government | obtains In some manner which the l wisdom of the Congress may suggest, i proper control over the big ccrporat- | ions engaged in interstate commerce | --that is, over the great majority Of l the big corporations-it will he impos- 1 sible to deal adequately with these 1 evils.
 This power to regulate rates, like | all similar powers over the business | world, should be exercised with mod 1 eration, caution and self-restraint: but | 1t should exist. so that 1t can be ef- | fectively exercised when the need 1 arises.
 q do not believe in the government l undertaking any work which can | with propriety be left in private
 hands But neither do l believe in
 the government fiinching from over
 seeing any work when it becomes evi"
 dent that abuses are sure to obtain | otherwise" /"
 In his message to Congress at the l beginning of the second session or
 AT