The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-09

matoly upon the entire body of citI-
 zeus
 The opposition to government con-
 trol of these great corporations makes
 Its most effective effort in the shape
 of an appeal to the old doctrine Of
 states rights, Of course there are
 many sincere men who now believe in
 unrestricted indlyidualIsm m business,
 just as there were formerly many sim cere men who believed In slavery
 that Is, jn the unrestricted right of an individual Co own another individual
 These mon do not by themselves have great weight, however The effective | fight against adequate government control and supervision of individual and especially of corporate, wealth engaged in Interstate business is chief ly done under cover, and especially under cover of an appeal to states
 rights, It Is not at all infrequent 10
 read in the same speech a denuncia- { tion of predatory wealth fostered by special privilege and defiant of both i the public welfare and law of the land, and a dcnuncation of ccntrali2atlon
 In the central government of the pow
 CT to deal with this centralized and
 organized wealth, Of course the pol ! icy set forth in such twin 0enuncia- tlons amounts to absolutely nothing, for the first half is nullifed by the sec
 ond half The chief reason, among
 the many sound and compelling req sons, that led to the formation of the national government, was the absolute
 need that the union, and not the sev-
 eral states, should deal with interstate and forclgn commerce.; and the power l to deal with the interstate commerce
 was granted absolutely and plenarily
 to the central government and was 1 exercised completely as regards the
 only instruments of interstate com
 mcrce known in those days-the wa 1 terWays, the highroads, as well as the ] partnerships of individuals who then
 conducted all of what business there
 was. Interstate commerce Is now
 chiefly conducted by railroads; and
 the great corporation has supplanted | the mass of small partnerships or in- ] dividuals. The proposal to make the
 national government supreme over,
 and therefore to give 1t complete con
 trol over, the railroads and other in strumcnts of interstate commerce Is
 merely proposal to carry out to the ] letter one of the prime purposes, if
 not the prime purpose, for which the ! consolidation tt-ac founded 10no mt ! represent centrallzation. It repre- | sents merely the acknowledgment of
 the patent fact that centralization has l already come in business. If this lr- i responsible outside business power is ! to be controlled in the interest of the i general public 1t can only be con- l trolled in one way; by giving adequate l power of control to the one sovereign | ty capable of exercising such power l the national government. Forty or | fifty separate state governments can ! not exercise that power over corpora
 tions doing business in most or all of l them; first, because they absolutely l lack the authority to deal with inter-
 state business in any form and sec I ond, because of the inevitable conflict | of authority sure to arise in the ef- i fort to enforce different kinds of state
 regulation. often inconsistent with one
 another and sometimes oppressive in | themselves. Such divided authority \ can not regulate commerce with wis ! dom and effect. The central govern
 ment is the only power which, with
 out oppression, can nevertheless thor
 oughly and adequately control and su-