The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-08

ure which has specially to do with
inability to hold to proper account men
of wealth who behave badly.
The chief breakdown is in dealing
with the new relations that arise from
the mutualism, the interdependence, of
our time. Every new social relation
begets new type of wrongdoing-of
sin, to use an old fashioned woodland
many years always elapse before So
ciety is able to turn this sin into crime
which can be effectively punished at
: law. During the lifetime of the older
men now alive the social relations
have changed far more rapidly than in
the preceding two centuries. The i'm
mense growth of corporations, of bust
ness done by associations and the ex-
IRENE strain and pressure of modern
life have produced conditions which
render the public confused as to who
| its really dangerous foes are, and
among the public servants who have
not only shared this confusion, but by
some of their acts have increased it,
are certain judges. Marked inefficien-
| cy has been shown in dealing with cor
porations and in resettling the proper
attitude to be taken by the public not
! only toward corporations, but toward
/
arising out of the factory system and
| the enormous growth of our great
| cities.
| The huge wealth that has been ac-
cumulated by few individuals of re-
cent years, in what has amounted to a
social and industrial revolution, has
| been as regards some of these indi-
| viduals made possible only by the i'm
proper use of the modern corporation
A certain type of modern corporation,
with its officers and agents, its many
| issues of securities and its constant
| consolidation with allied undertak-
| ings, finally becomes an instrument so
complex as to contain a greater num-
Der of elements that under various
judicial decisions lend themselves to
fraud and oppression than any device
yet evolved in the human brain. Cor
porations are necessary instruments
of modern business. They have been
permitted to become a menace largely
because the governmental representa-
tives of the people have worked slowly
in providing for adequate control over
them.
The chief offender in any given case
may be an executive, legislature or a
Ju0SC' Lively CACCulANC AOc10 VIII dO-
vises violent instead of gradual action
or who advocates ill considered and
sweeping measures of reform, es-
pecially if they are tainted with vim
dictiveness and disregard for the
rights of the minority, is particularly
blameworthy. The several legislatures
are responsible for the fact that our
laws are often prepared with slovenly
i
Moreover, they are often prepared and
still more frequently amended dur
ing passage at the suggestion of the
very parties against whom they are
afterward enforced. Our great cIus-
ters of corporations, huge trusts and
fabuIously wealthy multimillionaries
employ the very best lawyers they can
obtain to pick flaws in these statutes
after their passage, but they also en-
pIoy a class of secret agents who seek
under the advice of experts to render
hostile legislation innocuous by making
it unconstitutional, often through the
insertion of what appear on their face
to be drastic and sweeping provisions
against the interests of the parties in
spring them, while the demagogueS, |
the corrupt creatures who introduce
porations and all who demand ex-
IRENE and undesirably radical meas
ures show themselves to be the worst
enemies of the very public whose loud
mouthed champions they profess to be-
A very striking illustration of the
consequences of carelessness in the
preparation of statute was the en-
ployers' liability law of 1906. In the
cases arising under that law four out |
of six courts of first instance held it
unconstitutional, six out of nine JUS
tees of the supreme court held that |
its subject matter was within the !
province of congressional action, and |
four of the nine justices held it valid. |
1t was, however, adjudged unconstitu- |
tional by bare majority of the court |
five to four. 1t was surely very |
slovenly piece of work to frame the |
legislation in such shape as to leave |
the question open at all.
Real damage has been done by the |
manifold and conflicting interpreta-
lions of the interstate commerce law. |
Control over the great corporations do |
ing interstate business can be effective |
only if it is vested with full power in
an administrative department, branch |
of the federal executive, carrying out |
a federal law. 1t can never be eff
fective if a divided responsibility is
left in both the states and the nation.
1t can never be effective if left in the /
hands of the courts to be decided by
lawsuits.
The courts hold a place of peculiar
and deserved sanctity under our form
of government. Respect for the law is