Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-08

business. The truth is that we who believe in this movement of asserting md exercising genuine control In the public interest over these great corpo rations have to contend against tive sets of enemies, who, though nominal. ly opposed to one another, are really allies in preventing a proper solution of the problem. There arc, first, the big corporation men and the extreme individualists among business men who genuinely believe in utterly un. regulated business-that is, in the relgu of plutocracy--and, second, the men who, being blind to the economic movements of the day, believe in q movement of repression rather than of regulation of corporations and who de- nounce both the power of the railroads and the exercise of the federal power which alone can really control the rail- roads. Those who believe In efficient national control, on the other hand. do not in the least object to combinations,
  ton in business administration. On the contrary, they favor both, with the all important proviso that there shall be such publicity about their workings and such thcroughgoing 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 concentration of wealth and ad- ministration, but we do believe in the distribution of the wealth in profits to the real owners and In securing to the public the full benefit of the concen. trated administration. We believe that with concentration In administration there can come both the advantage of larger ownership and of more equitable distribution of profits and at the same time better service to the commonwealth. We believe that the administration should be for the benefit of the many and that greed and rascal lty practiced on large scale should be punished as relentlessly as if prac- ticed on a small scale.
 We do not for moment believe that the problem will be solved by any short and easy method The solution will come only by pressing various con- current remedies. Some of these reme- dies must lie outside the domain of all government. Some must be out side the domain of the federal government. But there is legisla- tion which the federal government alone can enact and which is abso- lutely vital in order to secure the at tainment of our purpose. Many laws are needed. There should be regula- tion by the national government of the great interstate corporations, including simple method of account keeping, publicity, supervision of the issue of securities, abolition of rebates and of special privileges. There should be short time franchises for all corpora tions engaged in public business, in- cluding the corporations which get power from water rights. There should be national as well as state guardian ship of mines and forests. The labor legislation hereinafter referred to should concurrently be enacted into law.
 To accomplish this means, of course, certain increase in the use of, not the creation of, power by the central government. The power already ex- ists. It does not have to be created. The only question is whether it shall be used or left idle, and meanwhile the corporations over which the pow. CT ought to be exercised will not re- main idle. Let those who object to this increase in the use of the only power available, the national power, be frank and admit openly that they propose to abandon any effort to con- trol the great business corporations and to exercise supervision over the accumulation and distribution of wealth, for such supervision and con- trol can only come through this par. ticular kind of increase of power. We no more believe in that empiricism which demands absolutely unrestrain. ed individualism than we do in that empiricism which clamors for a dead ening socialism, which would destroy all individual initiative and would ruin the country with completeness that not even an unrestrained individual Ism itself could achieve. The danger to American democracy lies not in the least in the concentration of adminis- trative power in responsible and ac- countable hands. It lies in having the power insufficiently concentrated, 80 that no one can be held responsible to the people for it's use. Concentrated power is palpable, visible, responsible, easily reached, quickly held to account Power scattered through many admin, lstrators, many legislators, many men who work behind and through legis- lators and administrators. is impalpa- ble, is unseen. Is irresponsible, cannot be reached, cannot be held to account. Democracy is in peril wherever the administration of political power !, scattered among variety of men whc work in secret, whose very names are unknown to the common people It is not in peril from any man who derives authority from the people, who exer- cises 1t in sight of the people and who is from time to time compelled to give an account of it's exercise to the peo- pie.