The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-02

| have become experts In some special
technical Held They do not practice
law"
All that DR.. Wilson said is true, but
he seems not to have taken into con-
slderntlon the fact that so great is tiie
Increase, that he who would master
even a, single branch of the law cam
not do 1T within II goodly number of
years. Lawyers arc driven to special
izatton in sclf-defence, for they pre-
fer to be versed in some part of
the law rather than to be superficial
In many OF It's subjects. The long list
of electives offered TO our law school
students Is proof of the fact that some
choice must be made at the outset as
to the general direction in which the,
future lawyer must move. so complex
and SO rapid Is the growth of the law
In this country that great cry has
gone UP for some statement of the
Justlnian gave to Rome when he CON-
piled his Corpus Juris Civilis. 1t Is
we'll nigh impossible now for man
to be really proficient in more than
two or three branches OF the law.
Yet 1t Is in the suggestion that DR..
Wilson makes as to amending the law
of corporations that our interest is CEN
tired. His idea strikes at the very
root of our law OF corporations, whLn
he would dissolve the fiction that
corporation is, III the eyes or the law,
legal person, an !ndivislble entity.
In the case OF an offending corpora
individuals responsible for the act
of offence, instead OF penalzing the
corporate entity.
On this point Dr.. Wilson declared:
Corporations do not do wrong. IN
dlriduals do wrong-the individuals
who direct and use them for n selfish
and illegitimate purpose, to the injury
OF society and the serious curtailment
of private rights. You cannot punish
corporations. Fines fall upon the
wrong persons-upon the stockholders
and the customers, rather than upon
the men who direct the policy of the
business. IL YOU dissolve the offend
ing corporation. YOU throw great un-
dertakinss out of gear.
II regard the corporation as indis-
pensable to modern business enterprise.
am not jealous of it's size or might,
IL YOU will but abandon at the right
points the fatuous, antiQuated AMI
quite unnecessary fiction which treats
| 1T as legal person. Such fictions and
analogies We're innocent and conveni-
ent enough SO long as corporations
We're comparatively small and only one
| of many quite as important instruments
talities used in business--only minor
| item in the economic order of society.
But 1t is another matter now.
MANY modern corporations WELD
revenues and command resources which
no ancient State possessed and which
some modern bodies polite show no
approach to. in their budgets Aud
these huge industrial organizations we
continue to treat as legal persons, as
individuals, which we must not think
OF as consisting of persons, within
which we despair or enabling the law
to pick out anybody in particular 10
put either its restraint or its command
upon 1t is childish, 1t is futile it IS
ridiculous!
In respect of the responsibility
which the law imposes In order TO pro-
tect society itself, in order to protect
men and communities against wrongs
which are not breaches or contract but
offences against the public interest the
common welfare, 1t is imperative that
we should regard corporations as
merely groups of individuals. from
which 1t may. perhaps. be harder 10
pick out particular persons for pun
iShmnnt TO IA ptp fr ~,
of the general body of unassociated
men, but from which 1t is, nevertheless,
possible to pick them out
! You Will say that in many instances
1t is not fair to pick out for punishment
the particular officer who ordered n
thing DONE because he really had no
freedom in the matter; that he Is him
self under orders Is dummy Inanipu-
lated from without. / reply that So
ciety should permit no man 10 carry
out orders which are against law and
public policy, and that If you will hut
put one or two conspicuous dummies
in the penitentiary. there will be no
more dummies for hire
There is much force in what DR.
Wilson has said in this matter The
question is: whether respect for the
immemorial tictions of our law as 10
corporations shall outweigh the wide
spread demand for their regulation in
some effective methods for which the law
does not now provide. To adopt the
suggestion OF DR.. Wilson would neces-
state almost revolution in our law
as to corporations and partnerships;
1t would mean that the whole law of
corporations would have to BIO rewrt-
ten, Our courts would be 10th to de-
stroy the fiction. Yet the day seems
to be near at hand when the law, act
ing in orderly process. instead Of some
dangerous individual. will make the
corporations come to time" No one
can foresee what steps the Government
may take in the regulation and super
vision Of corporations in the next dec
ade, but 1t is possible that in our time
the corporate fiction will no longer
shield the law breaker and the criminal.
| The returning summer swallows
seem to have brought the bad weather
with them. Really, they do not know