Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-03

tunates save as the results of a policy which shall inure to the advantage of all industrious and efficient people who act decently, and this is only another way of saying that any benefit which comes to the less able and less fortu- nate must of necessity come even more to the more able and more fortunate. If therefore the less fortunate man is moved by envy of his more fortu- nate brother to strike at the condi- tions under which they have both, though unequally, prospered, the result will assuredly be that, while damage may come to the one struck at, it will visit with an even heavier load the one who strikes the blow Taken as whole, we must all go up or go down together. e .@
 'Yet, while not merely admitting but insisting upon this, it is also true that where there is no governmental re- straint or supervision some of the ex- ceptional men use their energies not in ways that are for the common good, but in ways which tell against this common good. The fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large and vest such power in those that wield them as to make it matter of necessity to give to the sovereign that is, to the government, which rep resents the people as wholesome ef- fective power of supervision over their corporate use. In order to insure healthy social and industrial life every big corporation should be held respon- sible by and be accountable to some sovereign strong enough to control it's conduct I am in no sense hostile to corporations. This is an age of com bination, and any effort to prevent all combination will be not only useless, but in the end vicious, because of the contempt for law which the failure to enforce law inevitably produces. We should, moreover. recognize in cordial and ample fashion the immense good effected by corporate agencies in q country such as. ours and the wealth of intellect, energy and fidelity devoted to their service, and therefore normally to the service of the public, by their of ficers and directors. The corporation has come to sstaSs just as the trades union has come tozstay. Each can do and has done great good. Each should be favored so long as 1t does good. But each should be sharply checked where it acts against law and justice. 'The makers of our national constitution provided especially that the regulation of interstate commerce should come within the sphere of the general government. The arguments in favor of their taking this stand were even then overwhelming. But they are far stronger today, in view of the enor- nous development of great business 1 agencies. usually corporate in form. Experience has shown conclusively that it is useless to try to get any ade- quate 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 COCK tensive with the field of work of the corporations-that is, by the national government I believe that this regu- lation and supervision can be obtained by the enactment of law by the con gress. |" Our steady aim should be by legislation. cautiously and care i fully undertaken. but resolutely per severed in, to assert the sovereignty of the national government by affirmative action.
 This is only in form an innovation. 1 In substance it Is merely restora- tion, for from the earliest time such regulation of industrial activities has been recognized in the action of the lawmaking bodies. and all that pro- pose is to meet the changed conditions in such manner as will prevent the commonwealth abdicating the power it has always possessed, not only in this country. but also in England. be- l fore and since this country became a separate nation.
 1 Tt has been a misfortune that the national laws on this subject have hitherto been of a negative or prohib- l itive rather than an affirmative kind and still more that they have in part sought to prohibit what could not be effectively prohibited and have in part in their prohibitions confOunded what should be allowed and what should not be allowed. It is generally useless to try to prohibit all restraint on com pctition. whether thls restraint be req sonable or unreasonable. and where 1t is not useless it Is generally burtful. The successful prosecution of one device to evade the law immedi- ately develops another device to accom- plish the same purpose. What is nees- cd is not sweeping prohibition of every arrangement. good O. bad. which may tend 10 restrict competition, but such adequate supervision and regulation as will prevent any restriction of com petition from being to the detriment of the publis. as well as such supervision and regulation as will prevent other abuses ia no way connected with re striction of competition
 . have called your attention in these quotations to what ' have already said because am satisfied that 1t Is the duty of the national government to em- body in action the principles thus ex- pressed
 ! INTERSTATE CONVERGE.
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