Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-12-11

the nation there is nothing to choose be-
tween on the one hand the corruptionist.
the bride giver, the taker the man
who employs his great talent to swlndle
his fellow citizens on n large scale, and,
on the other hand. the preacher of class
hatred, the man who, whether from ig-
nofance or from willingness TO sacrifice his
country TO his ambition, persuadeS we'll
meaning but wrong-headed men to try to
destroy the instruments upon which our
prosperity mainly rests. Let each group of
men beware of and guard against the
! shortcomings to which that group Is Itself
most liable. Too often we see the business
| community in Il spirit of unhealthy class
consciousness deplOre the effort to hold to
account under the law the wealthy men
! who in their management of great corpor-
! ationS, whether railroads, street railways,
! or other Industrial enterprises, have be-
hayed in a way that revolts the conscience
| OF the plain, decent people. Such an atti-
| tude cannot be condemned too severely,
! 70" men of property should recognize that
! they jeopardize the rights of property
when they fail heartily to join in the eff
! fort to do away with the abuses of wealth.
| On the other hand, those who advC
! proper control on behalf of the public,
! through the state, Of these great corpora
! tiOns. and Of the wealth engaged on Il
! giant scale III business operations, must
I ever keep in mind that unless they do
! Scrupulous Justice to the corporation, I'M
! less they permit ample profit, and cordial
! ~ encourage capable men of business so
! long as they act with honesty. they are
! striking at the root of our national we'll
I
pressure of material distress, the people
/ whole would probably go back to the
! reign of an unrestricted indiyidualisIn
| rather than submit to a control by the
| state so drastic and so foolish, conceived
/ in Il spirit of such unreasonable and mar
row hostility to wealth, as to prevent bust
| ness operations from being profitable, and
! therefore to bring ruin upon the entire
! business community, and ultimately upon
! the entire body of citizens
! The opposition to government control of
| these great COrDOr0tiOnS makes rnoct
! effective effort in the shape of an appeal
| to the old doctrine Of states rights. OF
! course there are many sincere men who
now believe Ii unrestricted individualism
! In business, just as there were formerly
| many sincere men who believed III slavery
that is, in the unrestricted right Of IN in
men do not by themselves have great
weight, however. The effective fight
against adequate government control and
! supervision of individual, and espe-
! clally of corporate. wealth engaged
/ in interstate business is chiefly done under
I cover; and especially under cover of an ap-
! frequent to read in The same speech de-
! nunciatiOn of predatory wealth fostereG by
! special privilege and defiant Of both the
pubnc welfare and law of the land, and
! Cenunciation of Capitalization in the cen
! tral government of the power to deal with
! this centralized and organized wealth or
course the policy set forth in such twin
denunciatiOnS amounts to absolutely moth
i ing, for the first half is nulifed by the
/
! many sound and compelling reasons, that
/ led to the formation of the national gov
ernment, was the absolute need that the
/ Union, and not the several STATES shouIc
/ deal with Interstate and foreign commerce.:
! and the power to deal with Interstate com
! mercc was granted absolutely and plcnarily
| to the central government and was cyer-
i cised completely as regards the only instru-
! mentS of interstate commerce known in
! those days-the waterways, the highroads.
! rs well as the partnerships of individuals
/ who then conducted all of what business
| there was. Interstate commerce is now
! chiefly conducted by railroads: and the
! OF small partnerships or individuals The
! proposal to make the national government
! supreme over, and therefore TO give it
! complete control over. the railroads and
! other Instruments of interstate commerce
! is merely proposal to carry out to the
letter one of the prime purposes, if not the
( prime purpose, for which the constitution
was founded. It does not represent cen
! tralization. 1t represents merely the ac-
/ acknowledgement Of the patent fact that
( Capitalization has already come In business
| IL this irresponsible outside business DOW
! or is to be controlled in the interest Of the
! general public it can only be controlled in
! one way: by giving adequate power of con
troi OF the one Sovereignty capable of ex-
! ercising such power-the national govern
| ment. Forty or fifty separate state govern
ments can not exercise that power over
/ corporations doing business in most or all
/ of them; first, because they absolutely lack
the authority to deal with interstate bust
{ u.
! the inevitable conflict of authority sure to
/ arise in the effort to enforce different kinds
! of state regulation, often inconsistent with
! one another and sometimes oppressive in
! themselves. Such divided authority can
! not regulate commerce with wisdom ana
! effect. The central government is the only
! power which, without oppression, can new
! erthcleSS thoroughly and adequately con
| troll and supervise the large corpora tons
To abandon the effort for national control
means to abandon the effort for all ade-
! quate control and yet to render likely con-
tinual bursts of action by state Legisla-
lures, which can not achieve the purpose
of damage to the corporation without con-
ferring any real benefit on the public.
l believe that the more farsighted cor
porations are themselves coming to recoS-
nize the unwiSdOm of the violent hostility
they have displayed during the last few
years to regulation and control by the ma
gagged in interstate business. The truth is
that who believe in this movement of
asserting and exercising genuine control
i'll the public interest over these great cor
pOrationS have to contend against two sets
of enemies. who though nominaIly opposed
to one another. are really allies in prevent
ing a proper solution of the problem There
are, first, the big corporation men, and the
extreme individualistS among business
men, who genuinely believe in utterly I'M
regulated buSinesS-that is, in the reign of
plutocracy; and, second, the men who be-
| ing blind to the economic movements of
the day, believe in a movement Of repres-
Slou IdtheI ludH u reputation OF corpora
tions and who denOunce both the power
of the railroads and the exercise Of the
federal power which alone can really con-
troll the railroads. Those who believe in
efficient national control, on the other
! hand, do not In the least object to combi-
nations; do not in the least object to
concentration in business administration
On the contrary, they favor both, with the
all imurortant proyiSo that there shall be
such publicity about their workings, and
such thOroughgoing control over them, as
| to insure their being in the interest, and
not against the interest, Of the general
public. We do not object to the cencentra-
do believe in the distribution of the wealth
| in profits to the real owners, and in Sc
curing to the public the full benefit of the
concentrated administration. We believe
that with concentration in administration
there can come both the advantage of q
| larger ownership and of a more equitable
distribution of profits. and at the same
wealth We believe that the administra-
ton should be for the benefit of the many:
and that greed and raScality. practiced on
a large scale. should be punished as re
lentleSSly as if practiced on q small scale
We do not for a moment believe that Inc
problem will be solved by any short and
easy method. The solution will come only
by pressing various concurrent remedies
Some of these remedies must lie outside
the domain of all government. Some must
lie outside the domain of the federal
government. But there IS legislation
which the federal government alone can
enact and which is absolutely vital in order
Many laws are needed. There should be
regulation by the national government of
the great interstate corporations. including
a simple method of account keeping, pub