River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-12-10


| the railroads and other instruments of
| interstate commerce is merely a propos-
| al to carry out to the letter one of the
| prime purposes, il not the prime purpose,
| for which the constitution was founded.
| 1t does not represent Capitalization. 1t
/ represents merely the acknowledgment
Of the patent fact that Capitalization has
/ already come in business. If this ire
! Sponsible outside business power is to be
| controlled in the interest of the general
| public 1t can only be controlled in one
| way; by giving adequate power OF con-
troll to the one sovereignty capable of ex-
ercising such power-the national govern
| ment. To abandon the effort for national
| control means to abandon the effort for
| all adequate control and yet to render like
| ly continual bursts of action by state leg
| islatures, which cannot achieve the pur-
pose sought for, but which can do
| great deal of damage to the corporation
without comforting any real benefit on
| the public.
Corporations Learning Wisdom.
I believe that the more farsighted cor
| porations are themselves coming to rec
| ognize the unwisdom of the violent hos
| unity they have displayed during the last
Few years to regulation and control by
| the national government of combinations
engaged in interstate business. The
truth is that we who believe in this
movement of asserting and exercising
genuine control, in the public interest,
over these great corporations have to
| contend against two sets of enemies,
who, though nominally opposed to one
| another, are really allies in preventing
q proper solution of the problem. There
are, first, the big corporation men, and
the extreme fndividualists among bust
ness men, who genuinely believe in ut
terly unregulated businesS-that is, in
| the reign of plutocracy; and, second,
he I1s.- L. a.
ic movements of the day, believe in
movement of repression rather than of
regulation of corporations, and who de-
nounce both the power of the railroads
and the exercise of the federal power
which alone can really control the rail-
roads Those who believe in efficient ma
tional control, on the other hand, do not
in the least object to combinations; do
not in the least object to concentration
in business administration. On the con-
trary, they favor both, with the a1l-inpor-
tant proviso that there shall be such pub
licity about their workings and such
thoroughgoing control over them, as to
insure their being in the interest, and
not against the interest. of the general
public. We do not object to the concen-
tration of wealth and administration; but
we do believe in the distribution of the
wealth in profits to the real owners, and
in securing to the public the full benefit
of the concentrated administration. We
believe that with concentration in adj
ministration there car come both the
advantage of a larger ownership and of a
more equitable distribution of profits,
and at the same time a better service to
the commonwealth. We believe that the
administration should be for the benefit
of the mary; and that greed and ras-
cality, practiced a large scale,
should be punished as relentlesSly as if
practiced on small scale.
We do not for a moment believe that
the problem will be solved by any short
and easy method. The solution will
come only by pressing various concurrent
remedies. Some of these remedies must
lie outside the domain of all government.
Some must lie outside the domain of the
federal government. But there is leg
islation which the federal government
alone can enact and which is absolutely
vital in order to secure the attainment
of purpose. Many laws are needed.
There should be regulation by the ma
tional government of the great interstate
corporations, including q simple method
of account keeping publicity, supervision
of the issue of securities. abolition of
rebates and of special privileges. There
should be short-time franchises for all
corporations engaged in public business;
including the corporations which get
power from water rights. There should
be national as well as state guardianship
of mines and forests. The labor Iegisla-
ton hereinafter referred to should con-
currently be enacted into law.
To accomplish this, means a certain in
crease in the use of-not the creation of
power, by the central government The
power already exists; it does not have
to be created; the only question is
whether it shall be used or left idle
and meanwhile the corporations over
which the power ought to be exercised
will M 10 tn
lean democracy lies not in the least in the
concentration of administrative power in
responsibleA and accountable hands. 1t
lies in having the power insufffciently
concentrated, so that no one can be held
responsible to the people for it's use.
Concentrated power is palpable, visible,
responsible, easily reached, quickly held
to account. Democracy is in peril
wherever the administration of po-
litical power is scattered among
a variety of men who work in
secret, whose very names are I'M
known to the common people. 1t is not
in peril from any man who derives au-
thority from the people, who exercises
it in sight Of the people, and who is
from time to time compelled to give an
account of its exercise to the people.
Legislation for Wageworker.
There are many matters affecting labor
and the status of the wageworker to
which 1 should like to draw your atten-
ton, but an exhaustive discussion of the
problem in all it's aspects is not now nee
eSsary. / believe in steady eff
fort, or perhaps it would be more
accurate to say in steady efforts
in many different directions, to bring
about a condition of affairs under which
the men who work with hand or with
brain, the laborers, the superintendent,
the men who produce the market and the
men who find a market for the articles
produced, shall own a far greater share
than at present of the wealth they pro-
duce, and be enabled to invest it in the
tools and instruments by which all work
is carried on. AS far as possible 1 hope
to see frank recognition of the advan-
tages conferred by machinery, organiza-
ton and division of labor. accompanied
by an effort to bring about larger share
in the ownership by wage-worker of rail-
way, mill and factory.
Postal Savings banks will make 1t
easy for the poorest to keep their saw
ings in absolute safety. The regulation
of the national highways must be such
that they shall serve all people with
equal justice. Corporate finances must
be supervised so as to make it far safer
means to invest his money in stocks.
There must be prohibition of child la
Dor. 14minution of women labor. short
ening of hours of all mechanical labor;
stock watering should be prohibited
and stock gambling so far as is posi-
bic discouraged. There should be a
progressive inheritance tax on large
fortunes. Industrial education should
be encouraged. AS far as possible we