The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-09

gate the financial operations and ac-
 counts of the railways has been one of the most valuable features in re-
 cent legislation, Power to make
 combinations and traffic agreements
 should be explicitly conferred upon
 the railroads, the permission of tho
 commission being first gained and
 the combination or agreement being published in all Its details In the
 interest of the public the representa-
 tives of the public should have com plete power to sec that tho railroads
 do their duty by the public, and as a
 matter of course this power should
 also be exercised SO as to sec that no
 injustice Is done to the railroads The shareholders the employees and the shippers all have interests that must
 be guarded, It Is to the interest of all of them that no swindiing stock spec ulation should be allowed, and that
 there should be no improper issuance
 of securities. The guiding intelli-
 gences necessary for the successful
 building and successful management
 of railroads should receive ample re- 1 muneration; but no man should be allowed 10 make money in connection with railroads out of fraudulent over capitalization and kindred stock
 gambling performances; there must
 be no defrauding of investors oppres- sion of the farmers and business men
 who ship freight, or callous disregard
 of the rights and needs of the em- ployes. In addition to this the Inter i ests of the shareholders, of the em- ployes, and of the shippers should all
 be guarded as against one another. To give any one of them undue and improper consideration Is to do injus- tice to the others. Rates must be
 made as low as Is compatible with giving proper returns to all the em- ployes of the railroad, from the high est to tho lowest, and proper returns
 10 the shareholders; but they must not, for Instance, be reduced in such fashion as to necesstate a cut in the
 wages of the cmployes or the abolition
 of the proper and legitimate profits of
 honest shareholders.
 Telegraph and telephone companies | engaged in interstate business should
 be put under the Jurisdiction of the ! interstate commerce commission.
 l lt is very earnestly to be wished that our people, through their repre-
 sentatlves, should act in this matter ! It is hard to say whether most damage to the country at large would come ! from entire failure on the part of the ] public to supervise and control the ac-
 tions of the great corporations, or
 from the exercise of the necessary
 governmental power in a way which i would do injustice and wrong to the i corporations. Both the preachers of an unrestricted individuaism, and ' the preachers of an oppression which | would deny Co able men of business | the Just reward of their initiative and ! business sagacty are advocating poli- | cies that would be fraught with the | gravest harm to the whole country | TO permit every lawless capitalist. ev- | cry law-defying corporation to take \ any action, no matter how iniquitous \ in the effort to secure an improper i profit and to build up privilege, would ' be ruinous to the republic and would | mark the abandonment of tho effort
 to secure in the industrial world the
 spirit of democratic fair-dealing On | the other hand, to attack these wrongs ! in that spirit of demagogy which can
 sec wrong only when committed by | ha ,F fg h Il { blind in the presence of wrong com-