Arizona republican., 1911-05-17
Always Subject To Control
Of Creators
NOT AN AWFUL PROBLEM
Governor Wilson Outlines
Way of Solution Co OPP
Grafton, Not Antagonism,
Will Remove Much of the
Present Vexation.

Berkeley. Cal May Ex-Governor
! Woodrow Wilson this afternoon ad-
| dressed the students of the univer-
! sity and business and professional
| men Of San Francisco on corpora
tions. Describing them as the Gre
alton of the public he said that the
public had right To- alter the work
| of its own hands or to control its op-
Grafton. The corporation problem
need not be approached with awe and
doubt of the power of the public To
control its own instrumentalities Ii
should be recognized as fundamen-
| tai principle of our law. said he i'm
| dealing with corporations. that though
we call them artificial persons the
| only persons we are really going to
deal with in imposing the penalties of
the law upon them are the persons
who constitute their directors and Of
| ficers. There is no mystery about
| them; these are the persons they as a
/ matter of fact consist Of. We ought
| by this time to have seen the futility
trying to punish illegal action by
penalizing corporations as such. Fines
punish the stakeholder: forfeitures Of
charter and Of the franchises which
| they are exercising paralyzes indus
| try and confuses business Men do
not cease to be individuals by beCom-
ing the officers of corporations; and,
as their officers, they control and use
| them. and are masters of them. They
exercise their individual wills when
| they determine what the policy of a
| corporation shall be. The RESPONSE
| bility for violating the law. or for
neglecting public interests. ought to
| fall upon them as individuals Every
! corpora ton ought to be obliged to
| disclose To the proper officers of the
| law its organization, with such eX-
| plicitness that it will be possible to
determine from its own sworn analy-
! sis To which particular officer or
| board or committee each act of the
| corporation is traceabc. and the law
| should impose its penalties upon the
members of that board or of that
| committee or upon that officer They
should he punished individually, as
other violators of the law are pun
| ished. In short. the law should be
| framed upon the principle that the
corporate name is no hiding place or
| covert for anybody. but merely
| transparent medium through which
| individuals will be as clearly dis
| closed as if they were merely part
ners or acting separately for them
| selves We cannot afford To- have
these great machines driven by un-
seen engineers: and il is silly To break
up the machine instead of holding
| the engineer criminally liable when
wrongs against humanity are COM
mitted
| Let us clearly recognize and every
where proclaim that successful bust
ness and just politics are not antago-
nistic The business of society is CO.
operation. not warfare and antago-
nism. If everybody will come with
! clean hands and pure purpose into
the common game of life. there need
be no clash or hurtful rivalry. 1t is
only when a part tries To control ana
dominate the whole that society must
rise i'm it's might and restore the
proper balance.
The real difficulty in the manage
ment of our corporations in recent
years has been the wrong point Of
view of those who were in control of
them They did not recognize that
they were public trustees. They acted
as if they were conducting their own
| private business Let them change
their point of view. and there is no
problem to solve. There is no legis-
lation necessary if they will but re
gard themselves as trustees of the
i common interest. bound by consid-
erations not private. but public, IN
the conduct of their business.
Let us change at the same time, so
far as is necessary. the organization
of politics and what | may call the
contact politics 1t is at present 50
organized that it's chief contact is
: with little groups of managing men
: rather than with the great body of
: the people II has been run as If
politics were a matter of-private cor
porate interest. Let politics change
| along with the spirit of business, and
: YOU will have an adequate instru-
! ment of readjustment. You VIII nave
real representatives of the people
, dealing with business men who desire
themselves to represent the public
rather than private and selfish inter-
, ests. our whole problem is one OF
? adjustment of coming To common un-
r derstandings. of doing away with an
tagonism by creating spirit Of CO.
/ operation and accommodation
> think that the spirit of the age
is slowly changing with regard to al