Perth Amboy evening news. [volume] (Perth Amboy, N.J.) 1903-1959, 1910-09-26
WILSON SAYS
GUILT MUST
Be PERSONAL
Stop Corporations Breaking
the Law by Getting at tho
Men Responsible.
WHY HE'S A DEMOCRAT
Thinks Republican Party Is
Abusing Protective Prin-
ciples for Trusts.
NEW LAWS NEEDED
Merely Filming Corporations
Is Forcing Innocent Stock
holders TO Suffer.
NEW LAWS NEEDED

DR.. Woodrow Wilson, democratic
candidate for governor of New Jer-
sey, in an interview Saturday out
lined the principles on which he be-
lieves his party should make it's
campaign. After pointing out to The
New York Evening Post reporter
who interviewed him that the demo-
Gratis had an unusual opportunity
this year because of the entangle-
ment of the republican party with
corporate interests, DR.. Wilson
stated that If the democrats were
victorious at the polls they would
have a great chance to solve the
problem of how to make corpora
tions obey the law. He said that to
punish the corporations themselves
was unjust to the innocent stock
holders; but his plan, which he
thought would bring about the per-
sonal responsibility of corporation
managers and directors" was to find
out the officers responsible for
wrong-doing, that they alone might
be made to suffer. DR.. Wilson want
ed new legislation along the lines of
corporation control, he said, as some
OF the present laws were more of a
hindrance than a help to Justice.
These laws he wants repealed. His
interview, in fact, follows:
This is a year of democratic op-
portunity. l am a democrat because
| believe the democratic party to be
better fitted to serve the interests of
the people, and freer to serve them,
than is the republican party. The
republican party has illustrated It's
tendencies by the use it has made of
the protective tariff. Less and less
has it used it to effect the economic
development of the country; more
and more to favor particular inter-
ests--less and less as means of
protection, more and more as a
means Of patronage means of
guaranteeing profits to certain big
undertakings and interests, whether
they were wisely, justly, honestly
conducted or not.
THE republican party has been in
turn supported by these interests. A
partnership has sprung up which no
man can reasonably hope to see
broken by the republicans. Under
the shadow and protection of this
partnership with those who have
been long in control of the federal
government, great corporate inter
ests have made combinations to con-
troll the output of products, and
through this control of production,
to fix prices. When demand has de-
clined, instead of lowering prices.
these combinations have closed mills
and reduced production. Thus they
have 111o n toin n ~,
tic control over the level of prices in
the reservoir inclosed by the tariff
walls.
Il have no quarrel with big bust
ness, as such. But / would have
some individual or individuals held
directly accountable to the law for
the wrong-doings and violations of
the statutes which may be commit
ted in the name of the corporation.
! have plan which | think would
bring about this personal RESPONSE
bility of corporation managers and
directors, Only little while ago l
outlined it to the American Bar
Association. AS / told the lawyers,
corporations do not do wrong. In
dividuals do wrong. Guilt is always
personal.
Inc innocent Often Suffer.
II regard the corporation as indis-
pensable to modern business enter
prise. I am not Jealous of its size
or might, If you will but abandon at
the right points the fatuous, anti
quated, and quite unnecessary fiction
which treats it as legal person; If
you will but cease to deal with 1t by
means of your law as If IT. were not
only a single individual, but also
what every child may perceive it is
| not-a responsible Individual.
"The corporation is an arrange
ment by which hundreds of thou
sands of men who would in days
gone by have set up in business for
! themselves, put their money into a
single huge accumulation, and place
the entire direction of it's employ
ment in the hands of men they have
never seen, with whom they never
confer.
"These men, these quite aristo-
cratic managers, are thereby made,
as 1t were, multiple individuals. In
the more concentrated the resources,
the choices, the opportunities, in
brief, the power Of thousands. They
could never of themselves, of their
own effort and sagacity, have accum-
Ulated the vast capital they employ,
and employ as If it were their own;
and they have not the full legal re-
sponsibilities of those who supplied
them with 1t. Because they have
the power Of thousands they have
not the responsibility common to
those whose power they usei 1t is
an extraordinary anomaly
Should Fix Personal Guilt.
1.-THE managers of corporations
themselves always know the men
who originated the acts charged
CONTINUED on page 30