The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-12-11

| ~ OoSACAo VI OHDIGSSlOH WHICH,
would deny to able men of business
the just reward of their initiative and
business sagacity, are advocating pol
icies that would be fraught with the
gravest harm to the whole country.
1t is to the interest of all of us that
there should be premium put upon
individual initiative and individual
capacity, and an ample reward for
the great directing intelligences alone
competent to manage the great bust
ness operations of to-day. 1t is well
to keep in mind that exactly as the
anarchist is the worst enemy of lib
erty and the reactionary the worst
enemy of order, so the men who de-
fend the rights of property have most
to fear from the wrongdoers of great
wealth. and the men who are cham
pioning popular rights have most to
| fear from the damagogues who in the
name of popular rights would do
wrong to Cypress honest business
men, honest men of wealth; for the
success of either type of wrongdoer
necessarily invites violent reaction
against the cause the wrongdoer nom
inally upholds. In point of danger to
the Nation there is nothing to choose
between on the one hand the corrup-
zionist, the bribe-giver, the bribe-tak-
er, the man who employs his great
talent to swindle his fellow-citizens
on a large .scale. and on the other
hand. the preacher of class hatred,
the man who, whether from 1gnor-
ance or from willingness to sacrifice
his country to his ambition, persuades
we'll meaning but wrong-headed men
to try to destroy the instruments
upon which our prosperity mainly
rests. Let each group of men beware
of and guard against the shortcom-
ings to which that group is itself
most liable.
The opposition to Government con-
troll 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 individualism in bust
ness, just as there were formerly
many sincere men who believed in
slavery-that is. in the unrestricted
right of an individual to own another
individual. These men do not by
themselves have great weight, how
ever. The effective fight against ade-
quate Government control and super
vision of individual, and especially of
corporate, wealth engaged in inter-
state business is chiefly done under
cover, and especially under cover of
an appeal to States rights. 1t is not
speech a denunciation of predatory
and defiant of both the public welfare
and law of the land, and a denuncia-
ton of Capitalization in the Central
Government of the power to deal with
this centralized and organized wealth.
Of course the policy set forth in such
twin denunciatio9s amounts to abso-
lutely nothing, for the first half is
nullified by the second half. The
chief reason. among the many sound
and compelling reasons, that led to
the formation of the National Govern
ment, was the absolute need that the
Union. and not the several States,
should deal with interstate and for
eign commerce.: and the power to deal
with interstate commerce was granted
absolutely and plenarily to the Gen.
trail Government, and was exercised
completely as regards the only in
struments of interstate commerce
known in those days-the waterways,
the highroads, as well as the partner
ships of individuals who then con-
Quoted all of what business there was.
Interstate commerce is now chiefly
conducted by railroads, and the grea.
corporation has supplanted the mass
Nf oil o~ff,N IL, s.,I
The proposal to make the National
Government supreme over, and there
fore to give it complete control over,
the railroads and other instruments
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 Consti-
tuition was founded.
We do not object to the concentra-
ton of wealth and administration
but we do believe in the distribution
of the wealth in profits to the real
owners. and in securing to the public
the full benefit of the concentrated
administration. We believe that with
concentration in administration there
can come both the advantage of q
larger ownership and of a more equit-
able distribution of profits. and at the
same time a better service to the
Many laws are needed. There
should be regulation by the National
Government of the great interstate
corporations, including simple
method of account keeping. publicity,
supervision OF the issue of securities,
oh nlstinp Of of ~
privileges. There should be short
time franchises for all corporations
engaged in public business; includ-
ing the corporations which get power
from water rights. There should be
National as we'll as State guardian
shin of mines and forests.
There are many matters affecting
labor and the status of the wage
worker to which l should like to draw
your attention, but an exhaustive dis
cussion of the problem in all its as
poets is not now necessary. This
administration is nearing its end:
and. moreover, under our form of
government the solution Of the prob
lem depends upon the action of the
States as much as upon the action of
the Nation. Nevertheless, there are
certain considerations which | wish
to set before you. because l hope
that our people will more and more
keep them in mind. A blind and ig-
norant resistance to every effort for
the reform of abuses and for the read
justment of society to modern indus
trial conditions represents not true
conservatism but an Indictment to the
widest radicalism; for wise radical
ism and wise conservatism so hand