Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-12-09

an individual to own another Individual
great weight. however. The effective fight
against adequate Government control and
| supervision of individual, and especially
business is chiefly done under cover; and
especially under cover of an appeal to
States rights. 1t is not at all in1reqlent
to read in the same speech 2 denlncia-
| tion of predatory wealth foStered by
| special privilege and defiant of both the
public welfare and law of the lard, and a
| ttenunciation of centra1iZaton in the Cen,
with this centralized and orsanz@ed @
wealth. OF course the policy set forth
in such twin .dennnciatiors amounts to
nullifed by the. second half. The, chief
reason. among the many sound and com
pellng reasons: that led to the formation
solute need that the Union. and not the
several States. should dea! with inter
state and foreign. commerce; "nd the
| mower to deal with interstate commerce
was grarted absolutely and plenarily to
the Central Government ana was ,eXer-
| cised completely as regards the only in
sstruments of interstate commerce kr%2Wn %
| in those dayS-the waterways. the hlgti-
| roads, rs well as the partnerships OF IN,
dividuaIs who then conducted all OF what
business there was. Interstate commerce
is now chiefly conducted by RAILROADS;
and the great corporation has su5planteti
the mass of small partnerships or ndivid,,
nails. The proposal to make the Natl3nal
|
to give 1t complete control over. the rail
roads and other Instruments of interstate
commerce is merely proposal 10 carry
out to the letter one of the prime pi'r-
poses. If not the prime purpose. fo. which
| the Constitution was founded. 1T does
not represent Capitalization. 1T reDre-
sents merely the acknowledgment of the
| patent fact that Capitalization has al
ready come in business. If this irrespon-
sible outside business power is to he coii-
| t,o!'ed in the interest of tn. eeneral pun.
| ,,,,lx. a.
| by giving aGeauate power to contro! 10
| the one sovereignty capable Of exercising
| srch pnwer-the National Government
| Forty or fifty separate. state governments
can not exercise that power over corpora.
tions doing business in most or all OF
them: first. because thev absolutely l&ck
the authority to deal with interstate buSl-
ness in arv form; and second. because
of the iravitable conflict of authority sure
20 arise in the effort to enforce different
kinds Of state regulation, often incor SIS
tent with one another and sometimes Gp-
preSsiVe in themselves. Such DIVIDED all-
thority can not regulate commerce with
| wisdom and effect the Central Coy yeln-
mnnt is the only power WHICH. without or,
pression can nevertheless thrrou"hiv and
adequately control and supervise the large
corporations. To ah&ndon the eli"it Inr
National control mearS to abandon ire
effort for all adequate control ana YET
to render likely continual bursts of ac-
ton by State legislatures. which can not
achieve the rHnosG sf1s, de ," to ou' n" cn- .lv
poration without comforting auy real
benefit on the public.
l believe that the more farsishted cor
porations are themselves coming to re-
cogniZe the unwisdom of the violent hos
tility tEey have displayed during the last
few years to regulation and control by
the National Government of com hlnatlons
engaged IN interstate business. The truth
is that we who believe in this movement
of asserting and exercising genuine
control, in the public interest, over these
1,o1 tn
against two sets of enemies, who. though
nominally opposed to one another. are
really allies in preventing proper sclu-
tion Of the problem There are, first, the
big corporation men, and the extreme in
dividualists among business m.n, who
genuinely believe in utterly unreeSuiated
business-that is. in the reign Of plnto-
cracy; and, second, the man who, being
blind to the economic NOV emcnts of the
day, believe in q movement of repression
rather than Of regulation of corporations,
ard who denounce both the power of the
railroads and the exercise of the Federal
power which alone can really control the
railroads. Those VINO believe in efficient
rational control, on the otner hand do
not in the least object to combinations;
do not in the least object TO concertra-
tion in business administration. On, the
por.ant rroviso that there shall be such
publicity about their workings, and such
thoroughgoinst control over them. as to
insure their being in the interest, and not
lie. We do not object to the con-
centration; of wealth and adminis-ra-
ton: but we do believe in the distribution
of the wealth in profits to the real own
ers, and in securing to the public the full
benefit of the concentrated adninistra-
tion. We believe that with concentration
advantage of a larger ownership and of a
more equitable distribution of profits, and
at the same time better service to the
commonwealth. We believe that the ad.
,;ef,..,f CHI bn hn hn,1nf,t nf
the many; and that greed and rascality,
practiccd on large scale, should be pun
ished as ielentlessly as il practiced on
small scale.
tie problem will be solved by any short
and easy method. The solution will come
only by pressing various ccncurrent rene
dies Some of these remedies must lie
OUT side the domain of all government,
Some must lie outside tue domain of the
Federal Government: But there IS lesls-
la.ion which Tie Federal Government
in order to secure the attainment OF our
purpose. Many laws are needed There
should be regulation by. the n ttlonal Gov
tions, including a simple method OF ac.
count kecring, publicity, supervision OF
the issue Of securities, abolition OF renates
and of special privileges. There should be
short time franchises for all corporations
engaged in public business; includlng the
which get power from water
rights. Ifere SnOulu De Ni..iVIid 'tn Wtii
as Stat. guardianship of InineS ard fof-
ests The labor legislation hereinafter re-
ferred to should concur:ently te enacted
into law
To accomplish this, means of course, a
certain increase in the use of-not the
creation Cf-power by the Central Govern
merit The power already exists; 1t does
not have to be created; the only question
is whether ii shall be NSed or lett lille
and meanwhile the corporations over
which the power ought to I've exercised
will not remain idle. Let these who OBJ
iect to this increase in the use of the
only power available. the national power.
be frank. ard admit openly that trey
propose to abandon any esoit to control
the great business corporations and to
exercise supervision over the ac:umua-
tion and distribution of wealth; for such
s,1pervision and control can only come
through this particular kind of increase of
power. We no more believe in that em-
piricisri which demands absolutely un-
restrained individualsm than we do i'll
that empiriciSrn which ClamorS for a
deadenng socialism which would destroy
all individual initiative and would ruin
tine country with a completeness that not
even an unreStraincd individualism it
self could achieve. The danger to Am
erican democracy lies not in the least
in the concentration of administrative
power in responsible and accountable
hands 1t lies in having the power III
sufficiently concentrated. so that no one
can be held responsible To the people for
visible responsible. easily reached. quick
hold TO coal fnl I'D