The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-12-11


petent to manage the great business OPP
erations or to-day. 1t is well to keep In
mind that exactly as the anarchist is the
worst enemy of liberty and the reaction
airy the worst enemy of order, so the
men who defend the rights of property
have most to fear from the wrongdoers
of great wealth, and the men who are
championing popular rights have most
to fear from the demagogues who in the
name of popular rights would do wrong
to and Cypress honest business men,
honest men of wealth; for the success Of
either type of wrongdoer necessarily in
Vites violent reaction against the cause
the wrongdoer nomnally upholds.
Need of Capitalization.
The proposal to make the ma
tonal government supreme over, and
therefore to give it complete control over.
the railroads and other instruments of
interstate commerce is merely a propos-
al to carry out to the letter one of the
prime purposes, if not the prime purpose,
for which the constitution was founded
1t does not represent Capitalization. IL
represents merely the acknowledgment
of the patent fact that Capitalization mas
already come in business. If TINS IRE
sponsible outside business power is to be
controlled in the interest of the general
IL
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 Tor
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.
There should be regulation by the ma
tional government of the great interstate
corporations, including a simple method
of account keeping, publicity, supervision
of the issue of securities, abolition of
rebates and of special privileges. There
should be short-tme 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 legisla-
ton hereinafter referred to should con-
currently be enacted into law.
To accomplish this means certain in
crease in the use of-not the creation of
power, by the central government. The
power already exists: IL 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 not remain idle. The danger to Amer
lean democracy lies not in the least in the
concentration of administrative power in
responsible and accountable hands. 1t
lies in having the power insufhciently
concentrated, so that no one can be held
responsible to the people for its use
Concentrated power is palpable, visible
responsible easily reached quickly held
to account. Democracy is in peril
wherever the administration of po-
ltical power is scattered among
variety OF men who work in
secret, whose very names are un-
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 its aspects is not now nee
essary. / believe in a 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 market for the articles
prod2ced, 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 | hope
to see a frank recognition of the advan-
tages conferred by mach merry, 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
than at present for the man of small
means to invest his money in stocks.
There must be prohibition of child Ia
Dor. I.minution of women labor. short
ening of hours of all mechanical labor;
stock watering should be prohibited,
and stock gambling so far as is possi-
BILE discouraged There should be a
progressive inheritance tax on large
fortunes Industrial education should
be encouraged. AS far as possible we
should tighten the burden of-taxation
on the small man. We should put a
premium upon thrift hard work, and
business energy; but these qualities
cease to be the main factors in accu-
mulating fortune long before that
fortune reaches a point where it would
be seriously affected by any inheri-
lance tax such as I propose. 1t is emf
nently right that the nation should fix
the terms upon which the great for
tunes are inherited. They rarely do
good and they often do harm to those
who inherit them in their entirety.
There should no longer be any palter-
ing with the question of taking care Of
the wageworkers who. under our pres
ent Industrial system. become killed
crippled, or worn out as part of the
regular incidents of a given bust
ness As far as concerns those
who have been worn out. 1 call your
attention to the fact that definite
steps toward providing old-age PEN
sions have been taken in many of our
private industries. These may be in
definitely extended through voluntary
association and contributory schemes
or through the agency of savings
banks, as under the Massachusetts,
plan.
Urgent Need of Reform.
Our present system, or rather no sys.
TEN, works dreadful wrong. and is of
benefit to only one class of people-the
lawyers. When a workman is injured
what he needs is not an expensive and