The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-28
SHARP MESSAGE ASKS
 CONGRESS TO LEGISLATE
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 l -------~---~-~-~----~--- 1 which is emphatically one of public pol | icy, the policy which the public demands is sure in the end to be adopted; and l a persistent refusal to grant to a large portion of our people what is right is | only too apt in the end to result in | causing such irritation that when the l right is obtained it is obtained in the course of a movement so ill considered and violent as to be accompanied by much that is wrong. The process of in- 1 junction in labor disputes, as well as where state laws are involved, should be ! used sparingly, and only when there is 1 the dearest necessity for it. but it is one f SO necessary to the efficient performance of duty by the court on behalf of the ! nation that it is in the highest degree 1 to be regretted that it should be liable | to reckless use: for this reckless use tends to make honest men desire so to hamper its execution to destroy it's i usefulness.
 Class Consciousness.
 Every farsighted patriot should protest 1 first of all against the growth in this i country of that evil thing which is called "class consciousness" The demagogue, l the sinister or foolish socialist visionary l who strives to arouse this feeling of ] class consciousness in our working peo- 1 pie, does a foul and evil thing; for lie ! is no true American, he is no self-respect- ] ing citizen of this republic, he forfeits his right to stand with manly self-reliance on footing of entire equality with all ether citizens, who bows to envy and greed, who erects the doctrine of class i hatred into a shibboleth who substi- tutes loyalty to men of a particular status whether rich or poor, for loyalty to those | erternal and mmutable principles of l righteousness which bid treat each l man, on his worth a man without re- gard to his wealth or his poverty But ! evil though the influence of these dema- l g sogues and visionaries is, it is no worse ! in it's consequences than the influence ex- ] ercised by the man of great wealth or l the man of power aid position in the i industrial world, who by his lack of sym 1 pathy with, and understanding of, still more by any exhibition of uncompro- | missing hostility to, the millions of our l working people, tends to unite them i against their fellow-Americans who are 1 better off in this worlds goods. It s 1 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 necessarily greedy, l grasping, and cold-hearted and that they ! unjustly demand and appropriate mora 1 than their share of the substance of the | many Stern condemnation should be vis- ] ited upon demagogue and visionary who l teach this untruth, and even sterner upon those capitalists who are in truth grasp | ing 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 1 of unrest. A "class grievance" left too long without remedy breeds "class con sciousness'' and therefore class resent | ment.
 Strengthening Law. ! The strength ening of the anti trust law is demanded upon both moral and economic grounds. Our purpose in strengthening it is to secure more eff
 fective control by the national gov | ernment over the business use of the | vast masses of individual, and espe- 1 cialy of corporate wealth. which at the | present time monopolize most of the | interstate business of the country; and
 we believe the control can best be ex- | ercised by preventing the growth of 1 abuses, rather than merely by trying to destroy them when they have aJ- ready grown. In the highest sense of l the word this movement for thorough central of the business use of this great wealth is conservative. We are ! trying to steer a safe middle course, which alone can save us from pluto | hand, or a socialistic class government
 on the other either of. which would be . fraught with disaster to our free in
 Stitutions, state and national We are ! trying to avoid alike the evils which
 would flow from government ownership
 of the public utilities by which inter-
 state commerce is chiefly carried on,
 and the evils which flow from the riot and chaos of unrestricted individual
 ism ic erra n OItr
 free institutions in the corrupting in ! fuence exercised by great wealth sud :
 denly concentrated in the hands of the
 few. We should in sane manner try
 to remedy this danger, in spite of the
 sullen opposition of these few very
 powerful men, and with the full pur-
 pose to protect them in all their righ ts at the very time that we require them to deal rightfully with others.
 Astounding Revolution.
 When with steam and electricity
 modern business conditions weht
 through the astounding revolution
 which in this country began over ha;f
 a century ago. there was at first much
 hesitation as to what particular gov
 ernmental agency should be used to
 grapple with the new conditions. At
 almost the same time, about 20 years
 since the effort was made to control
 combinations by regulating then
 through the interstate commerce com
 mission, and to abolish them by mea IS
 of the antitrust act; the two reme-
 dies therefore being in part mutually
 incompatible. The interstate com1nerc.
 law has produced admirable results
 especially since it was strengthened
 by the hepburn law two years ago. The
 antitrust law, though it worked some
 good, because anything is better than
 anarchy and complete absence of regu-
 1ation. nevertheless has proved in many
 respects not merely inadequate but
 misch ievous. Twenty years ago the
 misuse of corporate power had pro-
 duced almost every conceivable form