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

exercise complete supervision n con-
troll over the Issues of securities as
well as over the raising and lowering
Of rates. AS regards rates, at least,
this power should be summary. The
power to investigate the financial OPP
erations and accounts of the railways
| has been one of the most valuable fea-
lures in recent legislation. Power to
make combinations and traffic agree
ments should be explicitly conferred
upon the railroads.. the permission of
the commission being first gained and
the combination or agreement being
published in all it's details. In the in
terest of the public the representatives
Of the public should have complete
| power to see that the railroads do their
duty by the public, and as a matter
Of course this power should also be ex-
ercised SO as to see that no injustice
is done to the railroads. The share
holders, the employees and the shippers
all have interests that must be guard
ed. 1t Is to the interests of all Of them
that no sWindling stock speculation
should be allowed, and that there
should be no improper of Sc
curities. The guiding intelligences
necessary for the successful building
n successful management OF rail
roads shoul receive ample
tiOn; but no man should be allowed to
make money in connection with rail-
roads out of fraudulent overcapitaliZa-
ton and kindred stock gambling per-
formances; there must be no defraud-
ing of investors, oppression of the
farmers and business men who ship
freight, or lilo disregard of the
rights and needs of the employees. In
addition to this the interests Of the
shareholders, of the employees and of
the shippers should all be guarded as
against one another. To give my one
of them undue and improper consider
alton is to do injustice to the others.
Rates must be mad as low as is COM
| patible with giving proper returns to
| all the employees of the railroad, from
the highest to the lowest. and proper
returns to the shareholders; but they
must not, for instance, be in
such fashion as to necessitate a cut
in the wages of the employees or the
abolition of the proper and legitimate
profits of the honest shareholders.
Telegraph and telephone companies
engaged in interstate bushes should
be put nder the jurisdiction OF the
interstate commission
1t is very earnestly to pc Wlsheo
that our people, through their repre-
| sentatives. should act in this matter.
1t is hard to say whether most dam
age to the country at large would
come from entire failure on the part
of the public to supervise and con-
troll the actions of the great corpora
lions, or form the exercise OF the neces-
| sary governmental power In a way
which would do injustice n wrong
to the corporations. Both the preach
ers of an unrestricted individualism.
/ and the preachers of an oppression
| which would deny to Die men OF BUS
mess the just reward Of their initiative
and business sagacity, are advocating
policies that would be fraught with
the gravest harm to the whole country.
To permit every lawless capitalist,
| every law-defying corporation, to take
| any action, no matter how ubiquitous,
! i'm the effort to ecure an improper
profit and to build up privilege, would
| be ruinous to the republic and would
| mark the abandonment Of the effort
to secure in the industrial world the
spirit Of democratic fair dealing. On
the other hand, to attack these wrongs
in hat spirit of demagogy which can
see wrong only when committed by
the man Of wealth. and is dumb and
! blind in the presence OF wrong com
! mitted against men of property or by
men of no property, Is exactly as evil
as c%orruptly to defend the wrongdo-
| ing OF men Of wealth. The war we
wage must b waged against miscon-
/ uuCl, Nil
IL found: and we must stand heartily
for the rights of every decent man,
| whether he be q man of great wealth
| or a man who earns his livelihood as
a wageworker or a tiller Of the soil.
It is to the interest Of all OF us h a
| there should be a premium put upon
| Individual initiative n individual ca
| pacitv, and an ample reward for the
| great directing intelligences alone
competent to manage the great bust
| ness operations of today. 1t is well to
keep in mind hat exactly as the
anarchist is the worst enemy OF lib
srty, and the r~eactionary the worst
enemy of order, so the men who de-
| fend the rights of property have most
10 fear from the wrongdoers of great
| wealth., and the men who are cham
| pioning popular rights have most to
fear from the demagogues who. In the
| name Of popular rights would 90 wrong
to and Cypress honest business men,
honest men of wealth; for the success
Of either type of w~rongdoer neces-
,arily invites q violent reaction against
the cause the ~wrongdoer nominally
upholds. In point of danger to the
nation there Is nothing to choose be-
tween on the one hand the corrup-
ZIONIST. the bribe -giver, the bride -taker,
the man who employs his great talent
to swindle his fellow citizens on a
l large scale, dnO. Oh tie olll6I Idiu, III
preacher of class hatred, the man.
who. whether from ignorance or from
willingness to sacrifice his country to
his ambition. ~persuades well meaning,
/ but wrong headed men to try to de-
stroy the instruments upon which our
prosperity mainly rests. Let eacn
group Of men beware of and guard
against the shortcomings to which that
group is itself most liable.
Too often we see the business COM
munity in a spirit of unhealthy class
consciousness deplore the effort to hold
to cou under the law the wealthy
men who in their management OF
great corporations, whether railroads
street railways. or other industrial en-
terprises. have behaved In a way that
reyolts the conscience of the plain. de-
cent people. Such an attitude cannot
be condemned too severely, for men OF
property should recognize that they
ieopardize the rights of property when
they fail heartily to join in the effort
to do away with the abuses of wealth
On the other hand. those who advO-
cate proper control on behalf of the
public, through the state, of these great
corporations. and Of the wealth en-
gagged on a giant scale in business
operations, must aver keep in mind
..-S~.c Hl~~, 10 Cnr,o,lo,,c {rc%;,,