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

the commission being first gained and
the combination or agreement being
published in all its details. In the in
terest of the public the representatives
of the public should have complete
power to see that the railroads do their
duty by the public, and as matter of
course this power should also be exer-
cised so as to see that no injustice is
done to the railroads. The share
holders, the employees and the ship
pers all have interests that must be
guarded. 1t is to the interest of all Of
them that no swindling stock specula-
ton should be allowed and that there
should be no improper issuance of Sc
curities. The guiding intelligelces nee
essary for the successful building and
! successful management of railroads
should receive ample remuneration,
but no man should be allowed to make
money in connection with railroads
out of fraudulent overcapitaliZation
and kindred stock gambling perform
ances. There must be no defrauding
of investors, oppression of the farmers
and business men who ship freight or
| callous disregard of the rights and
needs of the employees. In addition
to this, the interests of the sharehold-
| ers. of the employees and of the ship
pers should all be guarded as against
one another. To give any one Of them
undue and improper consideration is
to do injustice to the others. Rates
must be made as low as is compatible
with giving proper returns to all the
| employees of the railroad, from the
| highest to the lowest, and proper re-
| turns to the shareholders, but they
must not. for instance, be reduced in
! such fashion as to necesstate cut
/ in the wages of the employees or the
abolition of the proper and legitimate
profits of honest shareholders
Telegraph and telephone companies
| engaged in interstate business should
be put under the jurisdiction of the in
terstate commerce commission.
1t is very earnestly to be wished that
our people, through their representa-
tives, should act in this matter. 1t is
| hard to say whether most damage to
the country at large would come from
| entire failure on the part of the public
to supervise and control the actions Of
| the great corporations or from the ex-
| ercise of the necessary governmental
power in way which would do injus-
| tice and wrong TO the corporations.
| Both the preachers of an unrestricted
individualism 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 in the effort to Sc
| cure an improper profit and to build
! up privilege would be ruinous to the
| republic and would mark the abandon
| ment of the effort to secure in the in
dustrial world the spirit of democratic
| 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 committed against men of
property or by men of no property is
| exactly as evil as corruptly to defend
| The war we wage must be waged
against misconduct, against wrongdo-
| ing. wherever it is found, and we must
stand heartily for the rights of every
| decent man, whether he be a man of
| great wealth or a man who earns his
| livelihood as a wageworker or tiller
| Of the SOIL
| 1t is to the interest of all of us that
| here should be a premium put upon
| individual initiative and individual ca
| pacity and an ample reward for the
| great directing intelligences alone COM
| Detent to manage the great business
| operations of today. 1t is well to keep
i'll mind that exactly as the anarchist
is the worst enemy of liberty and the
-, reactionary the worst enemy of order
so the men who defend the rights of
| property have most to fear 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 popu-
lar rights would do wrong to and op-
press honest business men, honest men
| of wealth, for the success of either
| type of wrongdoer necessarily invites
a violent reaction against the cause the
wrongdoer nominally upholds. In
point of danger to the nation there is
! nothing to choose between, on the one
| hand, the corruptionist, the bride giver,
| the bride taker, the man who employs
his great talent to swindle his fellow
citizens on a large scale, and, on the
other hand, the preacher of class
| hatred, the man who. whether from
| ignorance or from willingness to sac
| rifice his country to his ambition, per-
suades well meaning but wrong head
+, ed men to try to destroy the instru-
ments upon which our prosperity
! mainly rests. Let each group of men
/ beware of and guard against the short
comings to which that group is it
self most liable. Too often we see
the business community in a spirit of
unhealthy class consciousness deplore
the effort to hold to account under the
law the wealthy men who in their
/ management of great corporations
whether railroads, street railways or
/ other industrial enterprises. have be-
haved in way that revolts the con-
science of the plain, decent people
Such an attitude cannot be condemned
too severely for men of nronertv