The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-09

tiou u the proper anu itSAlllldlE pIO
fits of honest shareholders.
Telegraph and telephone companies
engaged in interstate business SHOULD
be put under the jurisdiction of tbs
Interstate Commerce Commission.
1t is very earnestly to be wished
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 par
of the public to supervise and contrO
the actions of the great corporations
or from the exercise of the necessary
governmental power in a way which
would do injustice and wrong to The
corporations. Both the preachers Of
an restricted individualism. and the
preachers of an oppression which
would deny to able men of business
the Just reward of their initiatiYe and
business sagacity, are advocating po-
Iicies that would be fraught with the
gravest harm to the whole country.
To permit every lawless capitalist, ev-
any action. no matter how Ubiquitous.
in the effort to secure 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 spi-
rit of democratic fair-dealing. On the
other hand, to attack these wrongs in
that 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 committed
against men of property or by men OF
no property, is exactly as evil as cor
ruptly to defend the wrongdoing of
men OF wealth. The war we wage must
be waged against misconduct, against
wrongdoing wherever it is found; and
we must stand heartily for the rights
of every decent man. whether he be
a man OF great wealth or a man who
earns his livelihood as a wage-worker
or a tiller OF the soil.
II is to the interest OF all OF us that
there should be a premium put upon
individual initiative, individual capa-
city, and an ample reward for the
great directing intelligences alone
competent to manage the great busi-
ness operations of today. 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 demagogues who in the
name of popular rights would do wrong
to and Cypress honest business men,
honesS men of wealth; for the sue
cess OF either type of wrongdoer ne
cessarily invites a violent reaction
against the cause the wrongdoer no.
minally upholds.' In point of danger |
to the Nation there is nothing to |
choose between on the one hand the
corruptionist, the bribe-giver, the |
bribe-taker, the man who employs his |
great talent to swindle his fellow-citi- |
zens on a large scale. and. on the otn> |
er hand. the preacher of class hatred, |
the man who, whether from ignor-
ance or from willingness to sacrifice
essss country to his ambition, persuales
but wrong-headed men
to try to destroy the instruments Up
on which our prosperity mainly rests |
Let each group OF mon beware of and /
guard against the SHORTCOMINGS ,ot
which that group is itself most liable
Too often we see the business COM
in a spirit of unhealthy class
deplore the effort to
hold TO account under the law the
men who in their manage
ment of great corporations, whether
dustrial 0rises, have behaved IN
a way that revolts the conscience Of the
plain, decent people. Such an attitude
can not be condemned too severely.
for men of property should recognize
that they jeopardize the rights OF pre-
perty when they fail heartily to join
IN the effort to day away with the
abuses of wealth. On the other hand,
those who advocate proper control on
behalf of the public, through the
State. OF these great corporations, and
Of the wealth engaged on a giant scale
in business operations, must ever keep
in mind that unless they do scrupu-
lous justice to the corporation, unless
they permit ample profit. and cordial
ly encourage capable men of business
so long as they act with honesty, they
are striking at the root of our ma
tional wellbeing; for in the long run,
under the mere pressure OF material
the people as whole would
probably go back to the reign of an
individualism rather than
submit to a control by the State so
drastic and so foolish. conceived in
spirit of such unreasonable and narrow
hostility to wealth. as to prevent bust
ness operations from being profitable.
and therefore to bring ruin upon the
entire business community, and ulti-
mately upon the entire body Of citi
gems.
The opposition to government con-