The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-09-09

or the game, DuC tnaC l Stdnu LOT
having those rules changed so as TO
work for a more substantial equality
Of opportunity, and of reward fo1
equally good service.
This means that our govern
ments, National and State, must be
freed from the sinister influence OF
control Of special interests. Exactly
as the special interests of cotton and
slavery threatened u political in
tegrity before the Civil war, so now
the great special business interests
too often control and corrupt the
men and methods Of government for
their own profit. We must drive the
special interests out of politics. That
is one of our tasks today. Every
special interest is entitled t justice
full, fair, and complete-but not
one is entitled to a vote in Congress,
a voice on the bench, or to represen-
tation IN any public office. The Con-
stitution guarantees protection to
property, and we must make that
promise good. But it does not give
the right Of suffrage to any corpor-
alton.
The true friend of property, the
true conservative, is he who insists
that property shall be the servant
and not the master of the common
wealth; who insists that the creature
of mans making shall be the servant
and not the master of the man who
made it. The citizens of the United
States must effectively control the
mighty commercial forces which they
have themselves called into being.
OF corporations while their political
activity remains. To put an end to
it will be neither a short nor an easy
task, but it can be done.
eve must have complete and eff
fective publicity of corporate affairs,
so that the people may know beyond
peradventure whether the corpora
tons obey the law and whether their
management entities them to the
confidence of the public. 1t is neces-
sary that laws should be passed to
prohibit the use of corporate funds
directly or indirectly for political
purposes; it is still more necessary
that such laws should be thoroughly
enforced. Corporate expenditures
for political purposes, and especial.
ly such expenditures by public ser.
vice corporations, have supplied one
of the principal sources of corrup-
ton in III political affairs.
ut has become entirely clear that
we must have Government supervi-
sion Of the capitalization not only of
public service corporations, including
particularly railways, but of all cor
porations doing an Interstate bust
ness. l do lot wish to see the Ma
ton forced into ownership of the
railways if it can possibly be avoid
ed, and the only alternative is thor
oughgoing and effective regulation,
which shall be based on a full know
ledge of all the facts, including a
physical valuation Of the property.
This physical valuation is not need
ed or at least is very rarely needed,
for fixing rates; but it is needed as
the basis of honest capitalization.
"We have come to recognize that
franchises should lever be granted
except for a limited time, and never
without proper provision for COM
pensation to the public. 1t is my
personal belief that the same kind
and degree of control and supervis-
ion which should be exercised over
public service corporations should be
extended also to combinations which
control necessaries of life, SUCH as
meat, oil, and coal, or which deal
in them on an important scale.
81 believe that the officers, and
especially the directors, of corpora
tions, should be held personally re-
sponsible when any corporation
breaks the law.
Combinations in industry are the
result of an imperative economic law
which cannot be repealed by politi-
cal legislation. The effort at prohib-
iting all combination has substan-
TALLY failed. The way out lies not
in attempting to prevent such combi-
nations, but in completely controll-
ing them in the interest of the pub
lie welfare. For that purpose the
Federal Bureau of Corporations is
an agency of the first Importance.
Its power and therefore it's efficiency,
as well as that of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, should be
largely increased. We have a right
to expect from the Bureau Of Cor
porations and from the Interstate
Commerce Commission a very high
grade Of public service. We should
l.