Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1908-12-08

as compatible with giving proper re-
turns to all the employees of the rail-
road. from the highest to the lowest,
and proper returns to the sharehold-
ers; but they must not, for instance,
be reduced in such fashion as to ne
cessitate a cut in the wages of the EN-
ployes or the abolition of the proper
and legitimate profits of honest share
holders.
Telegraph and telephone companies
engaged in interstate business, should
be put under the Jurisdiction of the
interstate commerce commission.
1t is very earnestly to be wished
that our people, through their repre-
sentatives, should act in this matter,
Ii is hard to say whether most dam
age to the country at large would
come from entire failure on the part
of the public to supervise and con-
troll the actions of the great corpora
tions, or from the exercise of the
necessary governmental power in a
way which would do injustice and
wrong to the corporations. Both the
preachers of an unredistricted indl-
vidualism. and the preachers of an
oppression which would deny to able
men of business the just reward of
their initiative and business sagacity,
are advocating policies that would be
fraught with the gravest harm to the
whole country. To permit every law
less capitalist every law-defying cor
poration. to take any action, no mat
ter how iniquitous, i'm the effort to
secure an improper profit, and TO
build up privilege, would be ruinous
to the republic and would mark the
abandonment of the effort TO secure in
the industrial world the spirit of dem
ocTatiC fair-dealing. on the other
hand, to attack these wrongs in that
spirit of demagogy which can see
wrong only when committed by the
man of wealth. and is dumb and
blind in the presence of wrong com
mitted against men of property or
by men of no property, is exactly as
evil as corruptly to defend the wrong
doing of men of wealth. The war we
wage must be waged against miscon-
duct, against wrong-doing. wherever
II is found; and We must stand heart
lily for the rights of every decent man,
whether he be man of great wealth
OF a man who earns his livelihood as
I a wage worker or a tiller of the soil.
II is to the interest of all of us
| that there should be a premium put
upon individual initiative and indi-
vidual capacity, and in ample reward
for the great directing intelligence
alone competent to manage the great
business operations of today. 1t is
| well to keep in mind that exactly
as the anarchist Is the worst enemy
| of liberty and the reactionary the
| worst enemy Of order, 50 the mel
who defend the rights Of propert,
| have most to fear from the wrong
| doers of great wealth, and the mor
who are championing popular right
! have most to fear from the dema
| gogues who in the name OF popula
rights would do wrong to and op
press honest business men, honest mel
of wealth, for the success of eithe
type Of wrong-dOer necessarily invite
a violent reaction against the caus
the wrong-doer nominally upholds. Il
point Of danger to the nation there !
nothing to choose between on the on
hand the corruptonist, the bribe-giv
| or. the bride -taker, the man who EN-
ploys his great talent 10 swindle hi
fellow citizens on a large scale. and
on the other hand, the preacher o
class hatred, the man who, whethe
from ignorance or from willingness
to sacrifice his country 10 his ambi
} ti0n. peTsuades Well-meaning bu
wrong headed men to try to destro
5 the instruments upon which our pro.
perity mainly rests. Let each grou
p of men beware of and guard agains
the shortcomings 10 which that grOu
p is itself most liable. Too often "
see the business community in a spir
P of unhealthy class consciousness d,
o plore the effort 10 hold 10 account ur
e der the law the wealthy men who
( their management of great corpora
s tions, whether railroad, street raj
y ways, or other industrial enterprise
q have behaved in a way that revol
e the conscience Of the plain, decor
y people. Such an attitude can not