The sun., 1908-11-24

~ - WAaE = OhA8ya4 -,
To THE EDTroB on TIE SUN-gir. VIVA
benefits might not have come 70 ouI
country II President Roosevelt insseaS
Of fastening himself after March 4, 1909
to q small interstate corporation en-
gagged In publication Of news and o
opinions on news had agreed to ally
himself as @ managing director anc
chief executive with o blg\corporatlor
engaged In production 40 we'll as trans
portation and distribution among the
system In our New England or the Stand.
ard OIL or the tobacco or the sugar
corporations or tho Great Northern or
better still. the Union Pacific system
one becomes bewildered in the contam.
plation. He would have had oppor-
tunity to make practical application o.
"a practical man. to practical business
Of the theories OF industrial Law and
ethics he has % profusely elucidated
since the death Of Mckinley.
He would have as captain OF indus
try" great advantages over those that
Mellen, Rockefeller. Duke. Hill. Harri-
man and the others have had. He need
not fear that his successor IN the White
House would denounoe him al 'an un-
desirable citizen or that the Interstate
Commerce Commission would worry him
or that he would be haled before the
courts. He might make q greater sue
cess az president Of a business corpo-
ration even II 1t held the investments
Of "malefaotors Of great wealth. than he
has made as President OF a political
corporation.
The field for brilliant and successful
effort in vast industrial enterprises 10
yet wide open. Sound ethics and wise
administration such an he has taught
in theory are needed in the practical
administration which it iB to be assumed
he could have given as easily and readily
as rolling of a log" Has he not al
ready done the pioneer work OF corpora
ton reform' What could be easier than
for him to infuse as chief executive
officer into the conduct OF the biggest
corporation the principles upon which
the American people regulate their per-
sonal affairs and private lives? OF
course he could make an end OF all evil
doing in the Union Pacific system were
he in Harriman's place. He could weed
out the imperfect subordinates, the
train and traffic managers and replace
them with the perfect. His praotised
eye could detect the beginnings Of trust
and monopoly in arrangements with
other roads and stamp them out.
The managers Of great railway corpora
tons have had difficulties during Roose-
velt's occupancy Of the White House in
borrowing money needed for their oper-
ations and In getting from it's use when
obtained reasonable income for share
owners. The difficulties increased when
investors were warned by him that those
managers were worse than incompetent.
Out OF the warning a panic fear came
that investments already made were
unsafe. The theory put about by many
persons that there was year ago a de-
flciency Of loanable capital.was dispelled
as soon as it was seen what the Chicago
convention and the voters would prob
ably do.
Roosevelt at the head OF great inter-
state corporation need not fear scarcity
of money to be borrowed under the prob
"a
q conservative Congress.
He would. to be sure. need to keep
clear Of bankers who are representa-
tives OF predatory wealth." whose hands
are soft and faces are hard. selling at
home and abroad new bonds and shares.
Probably he could discover them among
those heretofore discredited by the White
House in the mass or IL not he could
create new bankers for his needs.
II Roosevelt sat at the head OF the di-
rectors' table OF a great transportation
would it be giant marion
cite with its wires pulled in Wall Street
n puppet Of national banks and the
Stock Exchange? If he had the power
now held by Mellen or Hill or Hartman
would the corporation he controlled be !
permitted to own and WELD shares enough
in other connecting roads to be master
Of one line from the Atlantic TO the Pa
cifc or from the northernmost station
in Maine to the Gulf of Mexico7 Why
not? AZ he has had the wisdom to lay
before Congress sound, safe and feasible
theories Of interstate railway govern
ment 1t is to be assumed that he could
manage without any more Federal laws
such as he has said must be over "the
citizen" who now seems,
despite the Presidents resistance, to
hold by his enterprise and energy the
centre Of the stage. Is it too later
HARVARD.
TAUNTON, Mass. November 20.