The Breckenridge news., 1910-09-28
Governmental ReguIa.
ton Of Profits.
(From Manufacturers RecordJ

Throughout the country, due in large
part to agitation by men VINO know lit.
tie about what they talk, and in part
by stralghtout damagogues who know
better, there is a rampant cry against
success. Everywhere it is being sug.
gested that capital invested in railroads
shall be limited to 5 or per cent. profit
and there is likewise tendency TO Ge.
nounce larger profits made in business
ventures.
If the earnings of capital invested in
development enterprises, such as rail.
roads are by the Government to be
limited to or 6 per cent, the converse
ought to be true, that the Government
should guarantee earnings of 5 or pei
cent. The people of the country who
are demanding the limitation of earn.
ings must be willing to guarantee that
the earnings shall at least reach the
figure upon which the Limitation is set,
otherwise there can be no broad expan-
sion.
Nothing can be more absurd than to
imagine that the great capitalists OF
this or any other country are going to
invest money in semi-speculative enter
prises, such as the building of railroads
or the establishment of new industries,
unless there is a connection with the
risk of the loss of capital an opportunity
for the possibility of large earnings II
nothing is to be gained beyond an in
come at which money can be safely
loaned, nothing will be ventured in de-
velopment work. and American prog
ress will halt. The resources of Can
ada, of Mexico and of some of the inn
perial regions of natural wealth in
South America will leap into active de-
velopment in proportion TO halting of
the development in our country.
Limitless as may be our natural re-
sources, we do not control the world
There are other lands in which coal and
iron and water-powers and agricultural
capabilities are found; other lands
where the work of the developer is ap-
preciated, where capital is welcomed,
where large earnings are not made the
cause of destructive legislation; other
lands already doing great things, and
ready and eager to compete with the
United States in industrial and railroad
development.
We are 10 set a valuation on the
physical properties of railroads in order
to limit their earnings, is the unsound
theory that great business enterprises
must be so dominated by law that they
shall not get the benefit of the nearn-
ed increment in the territory which
they build up and the good will which
is part of every successful institution
land this does not in any way mean
that they shall not be regulated by law
as 10 doing things legally and in ac-
cordance with the highest ethics), then
we should by law regulate the value of
real estate, city and suburban; the val
ue of newspaper properties and the val
ue of goodwill in every business. There
is no important newspaper in the land
whose physical property is any basis
Whatever on which To- measure what its
earnings shall be. Goodwill, establish
ed business and the growth of city in
which daily paper is published, or the
growth of the industry to which a
technical paper may be devoted, are
factors in the value of newspapers just
as much as the growth of country is a
factor in the value of a railroad, and
not the cost of of its replacement.
The increasing value of land neces-
sarily adds to the cost of foodstuffs. If
there had been no advance in the value
of farm land by reason of the growth of
the country, millions of people now
crowded in the cities would be able to
purchase farm property and make a
living for themselves and help to lessen
the cost of foodstuffs to those left in
the cities. Why, then, should men be
permitted to ask higher value for farm
lands or for city property Why not by
law put a valuation on all agricultural
land, never permitting 1t to increase,
and limiting the earnings to S or Q per
cent, and then force the farmers to