The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-12-08

/
a 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
/ lions engaged in public business, in
! Guiding the corporations which get
power from water rights. There should
be national as we'll 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,
a certain increase in the use Of not
! the creation of. power by the central
/ government. The power already ex-
lists. 1t 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
er 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-
troll the great business corporations
and to exercise supervision over the
accumulation and distribution Of
wealth, for such supervision and con-
troll 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 do in that
empiricism which clamOrs for n dead
ening socialism, which would destroy
all individual initiative and would ruin
not even an unrestrained individual
ism itself could achieve. The danger
to American democracy lies not in the
| least in the concentration of admins
trative power in responsible and &C.
countable hands. 1t lies in having the
power insufficiently concentrated, so
that no one can be held responsible TO
| the people for its use. Concentrated
power is palpable, visible. responsible,
easily reached, quickly held to account.
Power scattered through many admin,
istrators, many legislators, many meD
| whos work behind and through legiS-
| latOrs and administrators, is impalpa
! BILE, is unseen, is Irresponsible cannot
be reached, cannot be held to account.
Democracy is in peril wherever the
administration of political power is
scattered among a variety of men who
work i'll secret, whose very names are
unknown to the common people. 1t is
not i'll peril from any man who derives
| authority from the people, who eXer-
! ciSes it in sight of the people and who
! is from time to time compelled to give
an account of it's exercise to the PEG
pie.
Labor.
| There are many matters affecting la
| Dor and the status of the wageWorker
attention, but an exhaustive discussion
of the problem in all its aspects is not
now necessary This administration Is
nearing it's end, and, moreover, under
our form of government the solution of
the problem depends upon the action
of the states as much as upon the ac-
ton of the nation. Nevertheless there
are certain considerations which wish
to set before you, because | hope that
our people will more and more keep
| them in mind \ blind and ignorant
| resistance to every effort for the re-
| form of abuses and for the readjust-
| nent of society to modern industrial
| onditionS represents not true conSery-
ltism, but an Indictment to the wild
| est radicaliSm, for wise radicalsm
! md wise conservatism go hand in
hand, one bent on progress. the other
| )ent on seeing that no change is made
| al ~ h, .;.xlt Inl
II a steady effort, or perhaps it would
II more accurate to say in steady eff,
rtS i'll many different directions, to
! ring about condition of affairs ulI-
der which the men who work with
hand or with brain, the laborers, the
superintendent, the men who produce
for the market and the men who find
a market for the articles produced.
shall own far greater share than at
present of the wealth they produce
and be enabled to invest it in the tools
and instruments by which all work is
carried on. AS far as possible l hope
to see Il frank recognition of the adj
vantages conferred by machinery, or
Sanization and division of labor, ac-
cOmpanied by an effort to bring about
larger share in the ownership by
waeeworker of railway, mill and fac
tory. In farming this simply means
that we wish to see the farmer own
his own land. We do not wish to see
the farms so large that they become
the property of absentee landlords
who farm them by tenants nor yet SO
small that the farmer becomes like Il
! European peasant
! Again, the denoSitorS in our savings
banks now number over one-tenth of
our entire population. These are all
capitalists, who, through the savings
banks, loan their money to the workers
that is, in many cases to themselves
to carry on their various Industries.
The more we increase their number
the more we introduce the principles
of cooperation into our industry Ev-
! cry increase in the number of small
stockholders in corporations is a good
thing for the same reasons. and where
the employees are the stockholders the
! result is particularly good. Very much
! of this movement must be outside of
anything that can be accomplished by
legislation, but legislation can do a
good deal. Postal savings banks will
make it easy for the poorest to keep
hDft.