Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1908-12-10


they jeopardize the rights of property
when they fail heartily to Join in the eff
fort 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 Of the wealth
engaged on giant scale In business ops
erations, must ever keep in mind that
unless they do scrupulous Justice to the
corporation, unless they permit ample
profit, and cordially encourage capable
men Of business 50 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
reign of an Unrestricted individualism
rather than submit to a control by the
state SO drastic and 30 foolish, conceived
in spirit Of such unreasonable and
narrow hostility to wealth, as to pre-
vent business operations from being
profitable, and therefore to bring ruin
upon the entire business community, and
ultimately upon the entire body of citi-
Gems. 5sz@s .f
Interstate Commerce Problem.
The opposition to government control
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 in
dividualism in business, just as there
were formerly many sincere men who
believed in slavery-that is, in the un.
restricted right of an individual to own
another Individual. These men do not
By themselves have great weight, how
ever. The effective fight against ade-
Quate government control and supervi-
a md nj al 1JyEn ne 0NVs
porate, wealth engaged in interstate
business is chiefly done under cover; and
especially under cover of an appeal to
states rights. 1t is not at all infre-
quent to- read in the same speech a de-
nunciation of predatory wealth fostered
by special privilege and defiant Of both
the public welfare and law of the land,
and denunciation of Capitalization in
the central government of the power to
deal with this centralized and organized
wealth. OF course the policy set forth
In such twin denunciations amounts to
absolutely nothing, for the first half is
nullified by the second half The chief
reason, among the many sound and COM
pelling reasons, that led to the formation
of the national government, was the alb
solute need that the union, and not the
several states, should deal with inter
state and foreign commences; and the
power to deal with interstate commerce
was granted absolutely and plenarily to
the central government and was exer-
cised completely as regards the only in
struments of interstate commerce known
In those days-the waterways, the high
roads, as we'll as the partnerships of in
dividuals who then conducted 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 ind1-
vtduals. The proposal to make the ma
tional government supreme over, and
therefore to give it complete control over,
the railroads and other instruments of
interstate commerce is merely propos-
al 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 ire
sponsible outside business power is to be
controlled in the interest of the general
public it cam only be controlled in one
way; by giving adequate power of con-
troll to the one sovereignty capable of ex-
ercising such power-the national govern
ment. Forty or fifty separate govern
ments cannot exercise that power over
corporations doing business in most all
of them; first, because they absolutely
lack the authority to deal with inter-
state business in any form; and second,
because Of the inevitable conflict of au-
thority sure to arise in the effort to en-
force different kinds of state regulation,
often inconsistent with one another and
sometimes oppressive in themselves.
Such divided authority cannot regulate
commerce with wisdom and effect. The
central government Is the only power
which, without oppression, can never
+1@1o =, r~l,Sr 49,
troll and supervise the large corporations.
To abandon the effort for national con-
troll means to abandon the effort for all
adequate control and yet to render likely
continual bursts of action by state legis-
1atures, which cannot achieve the pur-
pose sought for, but which can do a
great deal of damage to the corporation
without comforting any real benefit on
the public.
Corporations Learning Wisdom.
I believe that the more farsighted cor
porations are themselves coming to rec
ognize the unwisdom of the violent hos
tility they have displayed during the last
few years to regulation and control by
the national government of combinations
engaged in interstate business. The
truth is that we who believe in this
movement of asserting and exercising
a genuine control, in the public interest,
over these great corporations nave TO
contend against two sets of enemies,
who, though nominally opposed to one
another, are really allies in preventing
a proper solution Of the problem. There
are, first, the big corporation men, and
the extreme individualists among BUSH
ness men, who genuinely believe in ut
terly unregulated business that is, in
the reign of plutocracy; and, second,
the men who, being blind to the econom-
ic movements Of the day, believe in a
movement Of repression rather than OF
regulation Of corporations, and who de-
nounce both the power Of the railroads
and the exercise of the federal power
which alone can really control the rail-
roads. Those who believe in efficient ma
tional control, on the other hand, do not
in the least object to combinations; do
not in the least object to concentration
in business administration. On the con-
trary, they favor boil, with the all-impor-
tant proviso that there shall be such pub
lefty about their workings, and such
thoroughgoing control over them, as to
insure their being ip the interest, and
not against the interest. Of the general
public. We do not object to the concen-
tration Of wealth and administration; but
we do believe in the distribution OF the