The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-09

 ferred upon the railroads. the permis- ! sion of the Commission being first
 gained and the combination or agree
 ment being published in all it's details
 Tn the interest of the public the rep-
 resentatives of the public should have
 roads do their duty by the public, and
 as matter of course this power should
 also be exercised so as to see that no
 injustice is done to the railroads. The shareholders, thes employees and the shippers all have Interests that must
 bS guaraed. t Is to the interest of all of them that no swindling stock speculation should be allowed. and that there should be no improper is-
 shance of securities. The guiding in- teliigeneies necessary for, the success ment of railroads should receive ann pie remunefation. but no man should De allowed to make money in connec-
 ton with railroads out of fraudulent over-eapitaiization and kindred stock gambling performances: there must be no defraudfng of investors, oppression of the farmers and business men who
 ship freight, or callous disregard of ll addition to this the interests of the
 sharehelders, of the employees. and of
 the shippers should all be guarded as against one another. To give any one
 ation is to do injustice to the others. Rates must be made as lew As is com patlble with giving proper returns to all the employees of the railroad, from
 I s tS the Gwss and out PFGPsg sg
 must not, for instance. be reduced In such fashion as to uecessitate a cut m the. wages of the employees; or the
 abolition of the proper and legitimate
 profits Of honest shareholders,
 Telegraph and telephone cofnpanieg
 sngagsd in interstate business should
 be put under the jurlsdtction of the
 interstats Commerce connission.
 that our people, through their repre-
 sentatives. should act in this matter.
 It Is hard to say whether most dam.
 age to the country at large would
 of the public to supervise and controi
 the actions of the great corporations, or from the exercise of the necessary governmental power in a way which corporatfons. Both the preachers of an. unrestricted individuaiism. and the preachers Of an oppression which would deny to abIe 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 iawfess capitalist; every law-de- lying corporation, to take any action. no matter how. ipiquftous: In the effort to securF an improper profit and to build up priyilege, would be rutnous to the Republic and would mark the abandonment of the effort to secure in the industrial world the spirit of dem- ocratie fatF-dealinG. On the other hand, to attack these wrongs in that spirit of .demagogy which can see man Of wealth. and is dumb and blind in the presence of wrong committed against men of property or by men of 10 property Is exaotly as evil. es cor men of wealth. The war we Wage Tnust be w&&ed against misconduct. against wrongdoing wherever 1t Is round; and we must stand heartily for CT he be man of great wealth or a man who earns hIs livelihood as q wage worker or tiIler of the soil
 IS to the interest of all of us that indiTiduaf Initiative and indivsSuai fSSn ca. kfeat directing inteiiigsnces alone com potent to manage the great business keep In mind that exactly as the an- archisk ts5 the worst enemy of liberty and the reactionary the worst enemy ot order. so the men who defend the from the wrongdoers of great wealth. and the men who are championing popular rights have most to fear from the demagogues who in the name of popular rights would do wrong to and men of Wealth; Tor tss si success -'sof of sssarfy sssssf fSp SSp,s of yEISngfOsT wIesga 9sC, nominaliy upholds. In point of danger .tezthe Nation there is nothing to choose betueen on the one hand the corrupt 1oaiat, the bribe-giver. the bribe- taker, the man who employs his great talent large. scale, and. on the other hand, the preacher of class hatred, the man who, whether from ignorance or ftom will ,ingness to sacrifice his country to his ambition. peRsuades well-meaning but pETopg =headed men to try to destroy the tnstruments upon which our pros perity mainly rests. Let each group of men beware of and guard against the itself most liable. Too often we see the bustneSs community in a spirit of un- healthy class consciousness deplore the enort to hold to account under the law the wealthy men who in their manage ment of great corporations, whether railroads street railways, or other fn- dustrial enterprises. have behaved in a way that revoits the conscience of the can not be condemned too severely for men of property should recognize that they joepardize 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 corporations, and the wealth an- gagged on a giant scale in business op- erations. must ever keep in mind that unless they do scfupulous justice to the corporation, 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 fin 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. conceiv- ed in q spirit of such unreasonable and narrow hostility to wealth. as to pre- vent business operations from being profitable. and therefore to brthg ruin upon the entire business community, and ultimately upon the entire body Of citizens.
 The opposition to government con troi of these great corporations makes an appeal to the old doctrine of States' rights. Of course there are many sin- cere men who now believe in unrestrict- ed individualism in business. just as there were formerly many sincere man who believed in slavery-that is, in the own another individual These men do not by themselves have great weight, however. The effective fight against adequate government control and su- pervision of individual. and especially of corporate. wealth engaged in inter state business Is chiefly done under coy CT; and especially under cover of an appeal to States rights It is not at all infrequent to read in the same speech a denunciatton of predatory defiant of both the public welfare and law of the land, and a dNnunciation of