The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-12-11

fight against adequate government
control n supervision of individual,
and especially of corporate, wealth en-
gagged 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 to
e in the same speech a denuncia-
ton of predatory wealth fostered by
special privilege and defiant of both
n public welfare and law of the land,
end a denunciation of Capitalization in
the central government of the power
to deal with this centralized wealth. OF
course the policy set forth iii sucl.
twin dsnunciations amount to abso-
!utely nothing, for the first half Is
rullifed by the second half.
h chief reason, among the man
sound and compelling reasons, that led
to the foundation of the national gov
eminent, was the absolute need that
the Union, and not the several states,
should deal with interstate and foreign
commences; and the power to deal with
interstate was granted abb
solutely and plenarily to the centraI
government and was exercised com
pletely as regards the only instruments
OF interstate known in those
days-the waterways, the hlghroads
as well as the partnerships Of indi-
viduals who then conducted all of what
business there was. Interstate com
merce is now chiefly conducted by rail
roads, and the great corporation has
Supplanted the mass of small partner
ships or individuals. The proposal &c
make the national government SUI
preme over, and therefore to give it
complete control over, the railroads
II other Instruments of interstate
commerce Is merely a proposal to car
ry out the letter one Of the prime pur-
poses, If not the prime purpose, for
which the Constitution was founded
1t does not represent Capitalization
1t represents merely the acknoWledg-
ment of the patent fact hat centrali-
cation has already come in business
II this irresponsible outside business
power is to be controlled in the in
terest of the general public 1t can
only be controlled in one way; by CIV
ing adequate power OF control to the
sovereignty capable Of exercising
such power-the national government.
Forty or fifty separate state govern
ments can not exercise that power over
corporations doing business In most
or all Of them; first, because they alb
solutely lack the authority to deal with
Interstate business in any form; and
second, because Of the inevitable con
flict of authority sure to rise in the
effort 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, without
oppression, can nevertheless thorough
~ and adequately control and super
wise large corporations. To abandon
the effort for national control means to
abandon the effort for all adequate
control and yet to render likely con-
tinual bursts of action by state legis-
latuu'es, which can not achieve the
purpose sought for. but which can do
a great deal Of damage to the corpora
ton without comforting any real bene-
fit on the public.
l believe that the more farsighted
corporations are themselves coming to
recognize the unWisdom Of the violent
hostility 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 a genuine control, in
the public interest, over these great
corporations have to contend against
two sets of enemies, who, though nom
inally opposed to one another, are real
~ allies in preventing a proper solu-
tlOl VI llc pIODltHl. 1IcIC dIC, hISt,
the big corporation men, and the ex-
IRENE in~dividualists among business
men, who genuinely believe in utterly
unregulated business-that is, in the
reign of plutocracy; and, second, the
men who, being blind to the economic
movements OF the day, believe in a
movement Of repression rather than OF
regulation of corporations, and who
denounce both the power of the rail-
roads and the exercise Of the federal
power which alone can really control
the railroads. Those who believe in
efficient national control, on the other
hand, do not in the least object to
combinations; do not in the least OBJ
ject to concentration in business ad-
ministratiOn. On the contrary, they
favor both, with the all important
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 CON
centration Of wealth and administra
ton, u we do believe in the distribu-
ton OF the wealth in profits to the real
owners, and in securing to the public
the full benefit Of the concentrated ad-
| ministration. We believe that with
concentration in administration there
can come both the advantage of a
larger ownership ana OF a more eQu1-
table distribution of profits. and at the
same time a better service to the com
nonwealth. We believe that the ad-
ministration should be for the benefit
Ut the many: and that greed and ras-
cality. practiced IN a large scale
should be punished as relentlessly as il
practiced on a small scale.
We do not for a moment believe
that the problem will be solved by any
short I'M 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 out
side the domain Of the federal govern
ment. But there is legislation which
the federal government alone can en-
act and which is absolutely vital ir
order to secure the attainment Of our
purpose. Many avs are needed
There should be regulation by the ma
tional government Of the great inter
state corporations. including a simple
method Of account keeping. publicity
supervision Of the issue Of securities
abolition Of rebates and Of specia
privileges. There should be short time
franchises for all corporations engaged
In public business. including the cor
porations which get power from water
rights. There should be national a.
well as state guardianship Of mine.
and forests. The labor Legislation