Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-10

law the wealthy men who in their
management of great corporations,
whether railroads. street railways or
other industrial enterprises, have be-
haved in way that revolts the con-
science of the plain, decent people.
Such an attitude cannot be condemned
too severely, for men of property
should recognize that they jeopardize
the rights of property when they fail
heartily to join in the effort to do
away with the abuses of wealth. On
the other hand, those who advocate
proper control on behalf of the public,
through the state. of these great cor
poratiOns and of the wealth engaged
on giant scale in business operations
must ever keep in mind that unless
they do scrupulous justice to the cor
poration, unless they permit ample
profit, and cordially encourage capable
men of business SO long as they act
with honesty, they are striking at the
root of our national well being, for in
the long run, under the mere pressure
OF material distress, the people as a
whole would probably go back to the
reign of an unrestricted individualism
rather than submit to a control by
the state so drastic and so foolish, CON
ceived i'll a spirit of such unreaSona BILE
and narrow hostility to wealth. as to
prevent business operations from be-
ing profitable and therefore to bring
ruin upon the entire business com.
munity and ultimately upon the en-
tire body of citizens.
The opposition to government con.
troll of these great corporations makes
its most 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 in
unrestricted individualism in business,
just as there We're formerly many sin
cere men who believed in slavery
that is, in the unrestricted right of an
individual to own another individual.
These men do not by themselves have
great weight, however. The effective
fight against adequate government
control and supervision of individual,
and especially of corporate, wealth en-
gagged in interstate business is chiefly
done under cover, and especially I'M
der cover of an appeal to states
rights. 1t is not at all infreuuent to
read in the same speech denuncia-
ton of predatory wealth fostered by
special privilege and defiant of both
the public welfare and law of the
land and denunciation of centraliza-
ton in the central government Of the
power to deal with this centralized
and organized wealth. Of course the
policy set forth in such twin denuncia-
tons amounts to absolutely nothing,
for the first half is nullified by the
second half. The chief reason among
the many sound and compelling rea-
sons that led to the formation of the
national government was the absolute
need that the Union and not the sew
eral states should deal with interstate
and foreign commerce, and the power
TO deal with interstate commerce was
granted absolutely and plenari1y to
the central government and was exer-
cised completely as regards the only
instruments Of interstate commerce
known in those days--the waterways.
the highroads-as well as the partner
ships of individuals who then conduct
ed all of what business there was.
Interstate commerce is now chiefly
conducted by railroads, and the great
corporation has supplanted the mass
of small partnerships or individuals.
The proposal to make the national
government supreme over and there
fore to give it complete, control over,
the railroads and other instruments of
interstate commerce is merely pro-
poSal to carry out to the letter one of
the prime purposes, if not the prime
purpose, for which the constitution
was founded. 1t does not represent
Capitalization. 1t represents merely
the acknowledgment of the patent fact
that Capitalization has already come
in business. If this irresponsible out
side business power is to be controlled
in the interest of the general public
it can only be controlled in one way.
by giving adequate power of control to
the one sovereignty capable of excr-
cising such power=-thc national gov
eminent. Forty or fifty separate state
governments cannot exercise that
power over corporations doing bust
ness in most or all of them. first, be-
cause they absolutely lack the author
ity to deal with interstate business in
any form and, second, because of the
inevitable conflict of authority sure to
arise in the effort to enforce different
kinds of state regulation. often incon-
sistentr with one another and some
times oppressive III themselves Such
divided authority cannot regulate com
merce with wisdom and effect The
central government is the only power
which without oppression can never
theless thoroughly and adequately
control and supervise the large cor
To abandon the effort for
control means to abandon the
effort for all adequate control and
yet to render likely continual bursts Of
action by state legislatures, which
cannot achieve the purpose sought for,
but which can do great deal of dam