Lower coast gazette., 1910-03-12
SATURDAY, MARCH y, 1910.
Secretary NageI on Capitalization

ton and how lndllcfenl leahng utlii'Ni"'' "N
to these destructive tendencies OF the fepubllcah
party. Charles Nagel, Secretary OF I'M
and Labor of the United States, some days ago
delivered an address before the INDUSTRIAL Cluo
in Chicago and while admitting that only a few
years ago the attempt of the federal government
TO create corporations would have been looked
mon with dismay, he now boldly comes forward
and says that the federal control of big corpora
tons is necessary. His would have been a
simpler and more democratic expression had ne
said that big corporations were not a necessity
and that their appearance here is intrusive,
forced upon the people by the power OF capital
lists. and that their intrusion ought to be resisted
at every step. The element OF blgness gives
these great corporations no more rights than has
a little Connecticut corporation with a capl1al OF
$50, 600 for the manufacture of buttons. Inc
Steel Trust, with it's eleven hundred millions OF
dollars of capital is an example OF centralized
power that ought not to be permitted in any free
government. Yet we see how Mr.. Roosevelt
consented to condone, or to permit the purchase
of the control of the Tennessee Iron and Steel 20.
bv the Steel Trust, the former being perhaps
the mOSJ conspicuous SoiiPeli'oi 'ii"' "N NNN
Trust had left in the field.
Secretary Nagel forgets that the various
states of the federal union are the integers out
of which the fedora! union is made into a nation,
each state retaining to itself all privileges not
specifically granted to the central government
in the Constitution Of the United States, and yet
he now says that the irreconcllable conflicts
with state laws to which ordinary business Or
PLANTATIONS are subject in our states have
forceda general recognition Of the fact that
something must,be done to relieve the situation.
If there is anything that must be done it is that
these combinations should be repressed. Secre-
tary Nagel seems to sympathize with these
great corporations and to think that various
states of the federal union in interfering with
them in their predatory work are doing the cor
p%orations a great injustice and that the states
can only be restrained from doing this by the
national incorporation Of the trusts, which, pre-
sumptively in the mind of Secretary Nagel,
would permit ihtm to continue their predatory
work upon the American public without state
interference.
The republicans are certainly extremely ag-
gressive in their efforts to destroy the demo-
cratic and the individualistic ideas on which this
government was founded. Thomas Jefferson and
his immediate democratic successors down to the
civil war all feared just such entertainments from
the old federalist party and its successors. The
great Distress. of the civil war and the reorgani-
cation of cur government have inaugurated a
new era ard the young men and the democratic
leaders of the present day seem to have a very
limited knowledge of the foundation ideas of
the democratic party, or they have grown ST.
premely indifferent to them and are willing to
accept an autocratic government, perhaps with
the hope of becoming some part Of it in the gen.
eral shuttle.
Secretary Nagel intimated in his address in
Chicago that President Taft recognized the ne
~cessities for legislation in regard to national in
corporation and noted three points that must be
determined. First the question Of the govern
lnent's authority; second the conditions which
make advisable such legislation and third, the
consequences Of such legislation. Secretary
Nagel very aptly. doubtless from his own point
of view, says that no one could subject this
question to a thoughtful consideration without
arriving at the conclusion that the federal con-
gress must undoubtedly have the authority to
: effect such legislation. The wish is father to
the thought. The Supreme Court of the United
States has uniformally decided in favor of the
literal text of the Constitution thus far, except
ing during the civil war period, when the income
tax first came up and it was decided to be con-
stitutional. That decision was subsequently re-
versed and the situation brought down to it's pres
sent stand, with the admission that the United
States cannot tax the citizens of the states except
ing in proportion to their population and certain
ly not in proportion to their income. In this way
the United States deals with the states and the
individuality of the states has been maintained.
During the last forty years the revenues of
the United States got by import duties, the
whiskey tax and the tobacco tax have been so
great as to blind the eyes Of practically every
congressman to every measure in congress, right
or wrong, provided always that the congress
man can get an appropriation for his own imme-
I.o&o fn.of,&, Th,n ,ro NJ ~, ofo&o roNho~o with