Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-02-06
ABUSES OF INJUNCTION NEED
CORRECTION AFTER CARE
Full CONSIDERATION.
APoLoGisTs OF SUCCESSFUL
DISHONESTY HAVE UNSET
TIED CONDITION,


the recent decision Of the supreme
court declaring the employers iabil-
ity act unconstitutional, and said:
The supreme court has decided the
law to be unconstitutional because it's
terms apply to employees engaged in
Interstate commerce. BY a substantial
majority the court holds that the
congress has power to deal with the
question in SO far as interstate COM
merce is concerned.
"As regards the employers HabiI-
tty law, I advocate its immediate re-
enactment, limiting it's scope % that
1t shall apply only to the class of
cases TO which the court says it can
constitutionally apply, but strength
ening it's provisions within this scope.
Interstate employment being thus
covered by an adequate national law,
the field of intrastate employment
will be left to the action of the sever
al states. With this clear definition of
responsibility the states will undoubt-
edly give to the performance Of their
duty within their field the considera-
ton the Importance of the subject de-
mands.
There is a special bill to which |
call your attention. Secretary Taft
has urgently recommended the imme-
date passage of a law providing for
compensation to employees of the gov
eminent injured in the work Of the
Isthmian canal, and that 100000 be
appropriated for this purpose each
year. I earnestly hope this will be
done; and that special bill be pass
ed covering the case of Yardmaster
Banton, who was injured nearly two
years ago while doing his duty. He is
now helpless to support his wife and
his three little boys"
The president referred to the at
tacks that have been made upon the
administration especially those eman-
ating from those interested in the fin
ancial affairs of Wall street.
Much is said in these attacks upon
the policy of the present administra-
ton said he, ''about the rights of
innocent stockholders" That stock
holder is not innocent who voluntar-
lily purchases stock in a corporation
whose methods and management he
knows to be corrupt; and stockhold-
ers are bound to try to secure honest
management or else are estopped
from complaining about the proceed
ings the government finds necessary
in order to compel the corporation to
obey the law. There has been in the
the past grave wrong done innocent
stockholders by overcapitaIi2ation
stock-watering, stock-jobbing, stock
manipulation. This we have sought to
prevent, first, by exposing the thing
done and furnishing the offender when
any existing law had been violated;
second, by recommending the passage
of laws which would make unlawful
similar practices for the future. The
public, men, lawyers, and editors who
loudly proclaim their sympathy for
the innocent stockholders" when a
great law-defying corporation IS pun
ished, are the first to protest with
frantic vehemence against all efforts
by law to put stop to the practices
which are the real and ultimate
sources of the damage alike to the
stockholders and the public. The
apologists of successful dishonesty al
ways declaim against any effort to
punish or prevent 1t, on the ground
that any such effort will "unsettle
business" 1t is they who by their acts
have unsettled business; and the very
men raising this cry spend hundreds
of thousands Of dollars in securing, by
speech, editorial, book or pamphlet,
the defense by misstatements If what
they have done; and yet when public
servants correct their misstatements
by telling the truth they declaim
against them for breaking silence, lest
values be deprecated" They have
hurt honest business men, honest
workingmen, honest farmers; and
now they clamor against the truth
being told.
''The keynote of all these attacks |
Upon the effort to secure honesty in
business and in politics is well ex-
pressed in brazen protests against
any effort for the moral regeneration
of the business world. On the ground !
that it is unnatural. unwarranted. and
injurious, and that business panic is
the necessary penalty for such effort |
to secure business honesty The /
morality of such plea IS precisely IS /,
great as If made on behalf of the |
men caught in a gambling establish |
ment when that gambling establish |
ment is raided by the police. If such |
words mean anything they mean that |
those whose sentiments they repre- |
sent stand against the effort to bring |
about a moral regeneration of bust
ness which viii prevent a repetition
of the insurance. banking, and street
railroad scandals in New York; re- |
petition of the Chicago and Alton |
deal; "a repetition of the combination |
between certain professional polite
ians, certain professional labor lead |
ers. and certain big ffnanc:ers, from |
the disgrace of which San Francisco |
has just been rescued: repetition of !
the successful effort by the Standard /
Oil people to crush out every compel |
itor, to overawe the common carriers. !
and to establish a monopoly which |
treats the public with a contempt |
which the public deserves so long as