The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-09

fEttof Oh0 VI tue pftffi6 puTp08e8. IT not
 the prime purpose, for which the Coft-
 stitutfon was founded. It does not rcp-
 resent standardization. It represents
 merely the acknowledgment of the
 patent fact that centraiization has al-
 ready come in business. If this irre-
 sponsibIe outside business power is to
 bo controlled in the interest of the gen.
 erai public 1t can only be controlled fn
 one way: by giving adequate power of
 control to the one sovereignty capable
 government. Forty or fifty separate
 State governments can not exercise that
 power over corporations doing business in most or all of them; first. because
 sae tnsy sS:Slqtely s.,:S lack the aushority to
 form and second, because of the inev-
 table confiict of authority sure to arise
 in the effort to enforce different kinds
 of State regulation. often inconsistent
 with one another and sometimes oppres-
 sive in themselves. Such divided au-
 thority can not regulate commerce with
 wisdom and effect. The Central gov-
 ernment is the only power which, with
 out oppression, can nevertheless thor
 oughly and adequately control and sw- tpervise the large corporations. To
 abandon the effort for national control
 means to abandon the effort for all ade-
 quate control and yet to render likely
 continual bursts of action by State Log
 islatures, which can not achieve the
 purpose sought for, but which can do
 a great deal of damage to the corpor-
 alton without conferftng any real bene-
 it on the public.
 believe that the more farsfgnted
 corporations are themselves coming 10 recognize the unwisdom of the violent hostility they have displayed during
 the last few yeats to regulation and
 control by the national government of combinations engaged in Interstate bus
 mess. The truth Is that we who be-
 lfeVe in this movement of Asserting ana
 exercising a genuine control, in the
 public interest. over these great cor
 sets of enemies, who, though anomfnally
 opposed to one another, are really allies In preventing proper solution or the problem. There are, first, the big cor.
 poration men, and the extrefne individ-
 uaiiats among business men,. who gen-
 uninely believe in utterly unregulated
 busfness--that is in the reign of pluto cracy; and. second, the men 'wilo being
 blind to the economic movements of the day. believe in movement of Pepres- sion rather than of regulation of cor. poratfons, and who denounce. both the power of the railroads and the exSr- else 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 object to concentration in bust ness administration. On the contrary
 SAtCg Adb0E DOkub Wll0 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, ana not against the interest, of the general centretion of wealth and administra- tion. but we do believe In the distribu- tton of the wealth in profits to the real owners. and In securing to the public the full beneflt. of the concentrated eds FaY a TA ts centration in administration there can come both the advantage Of a larger ownership and of more equitable dis. tributton of profits, and at the same time 2 better service to the common tration should be for the benefit of the many; and that greed and rascaIity. practiced on large scale, should be punished as relentlessly as if practiced on small scale.
 We do not for moment Believe that the problem will be solved by any short and easy method. The solution will come only by pressing various concur rent remedies Some of these remedies must lie outside the domain of all gov ernment. Some must lie outside the fio- main of the Federal government. Hut there is Legislation which the Federal government alone can enact and which IS ansoi,utsly yitsl In order to secure laws are needed. There should be reg ulation by the national royernnaeS,t of the great interstate corporations. h. cluding simple method of account keeping. publicity, supervision of the issue of securities, abolition of rebates and of special privileges. Thero should be national as we'll as State of mines and forests. The lapor Legislation hereinafter referred to should eoneurrently be enacted Into
 To accomplish this, means of course a certain increase in the use of-not tho creation of-power, by the central gov. does not have to be created; the oniy question Is whether 1t shall be used or left idle--and meanwhile the corpora ttons over which the power ought to be exercised will not remain idle LeI those who object to this increase in the use of the only power available. the national power. be frank, and ad, init openly that they propose to abands on any effort to control the great bus lness corporations and to exercise sp of wealth; for such super vision and . control can only come through this particular Kind of in. crease of power. Wa no more believe In that empiricism which demands ah. soluteIy unrestrained individuaIisn, than we do in that empiricism which clamorS tor a deadeninG socialiam which would destroy all individual in- itiative and would ruin the country with completeness that not even aa. individualIsm itself could achieve. The danger to American denn- ocracy lies not in the least in the of administrative power concentrated. so that nt, one can be held responsible to the peo. pie for its use. Concentrated power is palpable, visible, responsible. easily quickly held to account. Power through many administrators, Iaarf al behind and through legislators ana ad. is impalpable. is unseen, Is irresponsible, can not be reached can not be held to account. Democracy Is in peril wherever the administrator of political power Is scattered among a variety of men who work in secret whose very names are unknown to the 1 common people. It is not In peril from any man who derives authority from the people. who exercises 1t in sight | of the people and who Is from time to | time compelled to give an account of it's | exercise to the people.
 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 cusRloE of the problem in all it's as- pectB is not now necessary. This ad- under our form of govern ment the solution of the problem de- bends upon the action of the States 1, as much as upon the action of the | tain Considerations which I wish to Set before you. because I hope. that our people will more and more keep them | In mind. blind and ignorant resist abuses and, for the readJustment Of society to modern industrial conditions represents not true conservatism but !, ns indictment to the widest radical | Fa- rIo. ra dfNaliann and Wisa con-