The Washington herald., 1908-04-05

try. the twenty men who exercise abso-
Lutte sway over its great industries, or
the fifty men who control its finances and
have Il in their power TO wreck the cogn-
try by tieing UP all its men.
Nov It is a LIST of 100 men who control
absolutely all the wealth represented by
the great corporations. This is all TOM
my-rot, for the reason that no small
group % men, were they all as rich as
Rockefeller is commonly supposed 10 be.
possibly could control the wealth and in
dustry Of this country Those who say
that had better look Up the figures Of our
investment Of $40 0o0 0o0000 in manufac-
tures and manufacturing. our railroad in-
vesiment Of Nieoe0CoQ and our other
Investments ia mines. ocean commerce,
and the other forms Ol industry.
Ownership Widely Scattered.
In the second place. so far as The
largest ard most important corporations
in the country are concerned. their own
ership is becoming more and more widely
scattered. Their control is being vested
in an increasing number Of owners in
stead Of in a decreasing number Take
the case OF the three greatest corpora
lions la the country in the three great
nelds az manufacture. transportation, and
communication and you viii see that this
is the case.
The Pennsylvania Railroad system has
outstanding securities greatly I'm excess
of those of other roads and is rightly re-
garded as the greatest railway system IN
the country. 1t is a billi0n-dOllar raii-
way, and its ownership is scattered
among about 6o,e90 stockholders, to say
nothing of the vast number of banks and
Individual investors who mold its bonds.
Tibet ioesut i0ef1 iifle one-man OF a
sis-man concern. does il: and. as mat
ter of fact. there Is no one man vino can
dictate the policy OF the road. unless he
dictates a policy that meets with the ap-
prevail OF the great majority Of stock
holders.
steel as an Illustration.
THE greatest manufacturing corpora
ton o. the country is. as everybody
knows United States Steel 1t is called
a Morgan concern, because J. p. Morgan
organized g. bs its stock Is owned by
ever 10000 persons. according to the
statement Of George ". Perkins. chair
man OF the corporations executive com
mittee in the current number Of Apple
tons Magazine This diffusion of owner
ship is being encourage by the company
Though the inducements it holds out to
its own employees to become stockholders.
The greatest corporation in the coun-
try in the third field, that of communi-
cation is The American Telephone and
Telegraph. the controlling company Of
the vast Bell telephone system. It's re-
port, just issued, shows that its million
and half shares of stock are owned by
an army Of almost $500 stockholders, and
that this army increased more than 5,0e9
during 19g7 The average number of
shares held by each person was about
sixty-five for the whole company, and
the big shareholders Of the corporation.
all of those who owned over 300 shares
apiece. held between them only a little
over 100000 shares, or less than one
seventh of the total All the rest was
scattered in small lots among more than
q. coo owners.
Bonds Even More Widely Held.
This of course. lakes no account Of
the bonds and other securities Of the
company, which probably are even more
widely held. It is clearly ridiculous to
talk Of such a company as this being
owned or controlled by any small coterie
of men.
"of course, these companies, with the
exception Of the steel corporation, are
old concerns, with An established reputa-
ton for stability and their securities are
recognized as being safe and profitable
investment. That IS the only kind Of or
ganization the small investor will go into.
New fiotatiCns which haven't yet shown
that they hre successful are necessarily
owned in great part by a few wealthy
men. but that IS because the general
public is not ready TO take the risk in
volved in investing in them.
Take the well-established and we'll
known corporations throughout the coun-
try, however, and you will find that the
number of persons owning them is in
ereasing steadily year after year. 1t is
becoming increasingly difficult for any
small group of men to control any Of the
big enterprises of the nation, and IN a
few years more such thing will be sctu-
ally impossible. OF course. standard Oil
may be pointed out as an exception TO
this tendency, but then Standard Oil Is
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