The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1908-04-30

atty 10 those eternal and immnfabI.
principles of Righteousness which biz
us treat each man on his worth a
a man without regard to- his wealth
or his poverty. But evil though IN.
influence of these demagogues and
Visionaries is. tt Is no worse In III
consequences than the influence ex
ercised by the man OF great wealth
or the man Of power and position Ia
the industrial world. who by his lack
of sympathy with. and lack OF under.
standing Of, still more by an exhLbI-
ton OF uncompromising hostility to
the millions Of our working people
tend to unite them against their
| fellow Americans who are better
OF in this worlds goods. II is a bad
thing TO teach our working people
that men of means. that men who
| have the largest proportion of the
| substantial comforts of life, are nee
essarily greedy. grasping, and cold
hearted. and that they unjustly de-
mand and appropriate more than
| their share of the substance of the
many. Stern condemnation should
be visited upon demagogue and Wis
ionary who teach this untruth, and
even sterner upon those capitalists
who are intruth grasping and greedy
and brutally disregardful of the
rights of others, and who by their
actions teach the dreadful lesson far
more effectively than any mere
preacher of unrest. A class griev-
ance" left too long without remedy
breeds class consciousness and
therefore class resentment.
The strengthening of the anti
trust law is demanded upon both
moral and economic grounds. Our
purpose in strengthing it is to Sc
cure more effective control by the
national government over the busi-
ness use of the vast masses of indi-
vidual, and especially of corporate,
wealth, which at the present time
monOpolize most of the Interstate
business of the country; and we be-
lieVe the control can best be exercis-
ed by preventing the growth of
abuses, rather than merely by trying
to destroy them when they have al
ready grown. In the highest sense
of the word this movement for thor
ough control of the business use of
this great wealth is conservative.
We should in sane man
ner try to remedy this danger, in
spite of the sullen opposition of
these few very powerful men, and
with the full purpose to protect them
in all their rights at the very time
that we require them to deal right
fully with others.
Power should unquestionably be
lodged somewhere in the executive
branch of the Government to permit
combinations which will further the
public interest; but it must always
be remembered that, as regards the
great and wealthy combinations
through which most of the Interstate
business of to-day is done, the bur-
den of proof should be on them to
show that they have a right to exist.
No judicial tribunal has the knowl-
edge or the experience to determine
in the first place whether a given
combination is advisable or necessary
in the interest of the public. Some
body, whether a commission, or a
bureau under the Department of
commerce and Labor, should be
given this power. My personal belief
is that ultimately we shall have to
adopt a national incorporation law,
though [ am we'll aware that this
may be impossible at present. Over
the actions of the executive body in
which the power is placed the courts
should possess merely a power of
review analogous to that obtaining
in connection with the work of the
Interstate Commerce Commission at
present To confer this power would
not be leap in the dark; it would
merely be to carry still further the
theory of effective governme ntal con-
troll of corporations which was re-
sponsible for the creation of the In
ter-State Commission and for the en-
largement of it's powers, and for the
creation of the Bureau of Corpora
tions. The interstate commerce
legislation has worked admirably. 1t
has benefited honestly managed and
wisely conducted railroads; and in
spite of the fact that the business of
the country has enormously increas-
ed, the value of this Federal legisla-
ton has been shown by the way in
which it has enabled the Fedel al
Government to correct the most pro-
nounced of the great and varied
abuses which existed in the business
world twenty years ago-while the
many abuses that still remain en-
phasize the need of further and mole
thorough-going legislation. Similar
ly, the Bureau of Corporations has
amply justified its creation.
The decisions of the Supreme
Court in the Minnesota and North
Car olina cases illustrate how impos-
sible is a dual control of national
commerce. The States cannot con-
troll it, All they can do is to control
intra-State commerce, and this now
forms but a small fraction of the
commerce carried by the railroads
through each State. Actual expert
ence has shown that the effort at
State control is sure to be nullified
in one way or another sooner or
later The nation alone can act
with. effectiveness and wisdom; it
h0 1>af Of