The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-09


/ should concurrently be enacted int
: law.
To accomplish this, means Of cours
a certain increase in the use of-no
the creation of-power, by the Contra
Government. The power already ex
lists; 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 pow
er ought to be exercised will not re
main idle. Let those who object Il
this increase in the use of the only
power available, the national power
be frank, and admit openly that they
propose to abandon any effort to con
troll the great business corporations
and to exercise supervision over tbs
accumulation and distribution oil
wealth; for such supervision and con-
troll can only come through this par
ticular kind of increase of power. We
no more believe in that empiricism
which demands absolutely unrestrain-
ed individualism than we do in that
empiricism which clamors for a dead
ening socialism which would destroy
all individual initiative and would
ruin the country with a completeness
that not even an unrestrained indi-
vidualism itself could achieve. The
danger to American democracy lies
not in the least in the concentration
of administrative power in responsible
and accountable hands. 1t lies in hav-
| ing the power insuficiently concen-
trated, so that no one can be held res
ponsible to the people for its use. Con-
centrated power is palpable. visible,
responsible, easily reached, quickly held
to account. Power scattered through
many administrators, many legisla
tors, many men who work behind and
through legislators and administra-
tors, is impalpable, is unseen, is irres-
ponsible can not be reached, can not
be held to account. Democracy is in
peril wherever the administration of
political power is scattered among a
variety Of men who work in secret,
whose very names are unknown to
the common people. 1t is not in peril
from any man who derives authority
from the people, who exercises it in
sight of the people, and who is from
time to time compelled to give an &C
count Of, its exercise to the people.
LABOR.
There are many matters affecting
labor and the status of the wage
worker to which I should like to draw
your attention, but an exhaustive dis
cussion of the problem in all its as
poets is not new necessary. This adj
ministration is nearing its end; and,
moreover, under our form of govern
ment the solution of the problem de-
ponds upon the action of the States
as much as upon the action of the
Nation. Nevertheless, there are GER
tain considerations which l wish to set
before you, because I hope that our
people will more and more keep them
in mind. A blind and ignorant re-
sistance to every effort for the re-
form of abuses and for the readjust- |
ment of society to modern Industrial |
conditions represents not true con-
servatism but an Indictment to the |
widest radicalism; for wise radical
ism and wise conservatism go hand |
in hand .one bent on progress, the
other bent on seeing that no change
Is made unless in the right direction.
believe in a steady effort, or per-
haps it would be more accurate to say
In steady efforts in many different d.
rections, to bring about condition
Of affairs under which the men VINO
work with hand or brain, the labor
ers, the superintendent, the men who
produce for 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 produce, and be enabled to in
vest it in the tools and instruments by
which all work is carried on. AS
FAR as possible hope to see frank
of the advantages con-
ferred by machinery, organization, and
division of labor, accompanied by an
effort to bring about larger share
In the ownership by wageworker of
mill, and factory. In farm
ing, this simply means that we wish
10 see the farmer own his own land;
we do not wish to see the farms so
large that they become the property
Of absentee landlords who farm them
by tenants, nor yet so small that the
farmer becomes like a European pea
SAINT. Again, the depositors in our
savings banks now number over one
tenth of our entire population. These
are all capitalists, who through the
savings banks loan their money to the
is, in many cases to
-hemselves-to carry on their various
Industries. The more we increase
their number, the more we introduce
The principles of cooperation into our
Every increase in the num-
Der of small stockholders in corpora
tons is a good thing, for the same
and where the employees are
the stockholders the result is particu-
arly good. Very much of this move
nent must be outside of anything