Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-01-17

with statutes which matched them
neither in size nor shape.
No Longer HobRoblIns.
But, If only by sheer din of talking
about them, either to frig1ten or to
reassure one another, or to make our
selves out wiser or more knowing than
our fellows. We have at last turned
them about and looked at them from
almost every angle and begin to see
them whole. as they are. Corporations
are no longer h~obgoblins which have
sprung at us out of some mysterious
ambush, nor yet unholy inventions OF
rascally rich men, nor yet the puzzling
devices by which ingenious lawyers
build up huge rights out of a multitude
of small wrongs; but merely organiza-
lions OF 8 perfectly Ineligible sort
which the law has licensed for the con-
veniepce OF extensive business; or
CARNATIONS which have proved very
useful, but which have for the time
being slipped out of the control of the
very Law that gave them leave to be
and that can make or unmake them at
pleasure. We have now to set our
selves to control them, soberly but eff
feetively, and to bring them thorough
ly within the regulation OF the law.
Wise Regulations Needed.
There is q great opportunity here;
for wise regulation, wise adjustment,
win mean the removal OF half the diff
culties hat now beset us In u search
for justice and equality and fair chances
of fortune for the individuals who
make up our modern society, and there
is q great obligation as well as a great
opportunity, an imperative obligation,
, from which we cannot escape If we
would. Public opinion is at last wide
awake. 1t begins to. understand the
problems to be dealt with; it begins
to see very clearly indeed the objects to
be sought. It knows what has been
going on. 1t sees where resistance has
come from whenever efforts at reform
have been made, and knows also the
means of resistance that have been re-
sorted to; 1t is watchful, insistent.
suspicious. No mar who wishes to en-
Joy the public confidence dare hold
back, and, If he Is wise, he will not
resort to subterfuge. A duty is exacted
Of. him which he must perform sim
ply, directly, Immediately. The gate
Of opportunity stands wide open. If we
are foolish enough to be unwilling to
pass through it the whip of opinion
will drive us through.
mo wise man will say, of course,
that he sees the whole problem of re-
form lying plain before him, or knows
how to frame the entire body Of law
that will be necessary to square bust
ness with the general interest, and put
right and fairness and public spirit in
the saddle again In all the transactions
of our new society; but some things
are plain enough, and upon these we
can act.
Laws Arc Inadequate.
"In the first place, 1t is plain that
our avs with regard to the relations
of employer n employee are in many
respects wholly antlquated INT impos-
sible. They were framed for another
age which nobody now living remem-
bers, which is, indeed, SO remote from
our life hat It would be difficult for
many of us to understand it If 1t were
described to us. The employer is now
generally a corporation or huge com
pany of some kind; the employee is one
of hundreds or of thousands brought
together, not by individual masters
whom they know and with whom they
AVE personal relations. but by agents
of one sort or another. Workingmen
are m~arshaled in great numbers for
the performance of a multitude of par
tieular tasks under a common disci-
pine. They generally use dangerous
and powerful machinery, over whose
repair and renewal they rave no con
troll. New rules must be devised with
regard to their obligations and their
rights. their obligations to their en-
ployers and their responsibilities to n
another. New rules must be devised
for their protection, for their compen-
sation when injured. for their support
when disabled.
I'VE call these questions of employ
ers' liability, questions of workingmen's
compensation, but those terms do not
suggest quite the whole matter. There
is something very new and very big
and very complex about these new rela-
lions of capital and labor. A new eco
monte society has sprung up, and we
must effect q new set of adjustments.
We must not pit power against weak
ness. The employer Is generally in our
day, as l nave said. not an individual,
but a powerful group of individuals,
and yet the workingman is still, under
our existing law, an individual when
dealing with his employer, In case Of
accident, for example, or of loss or of
Illness. as we'll as in every contractual
relationship. We must have a work
ingman's compensation act which will
not put upon hlm'the burden of fighting
powerful composite employers to obtain
his rights, but which will give him
rights without suit, directly, and with
out contest, by automatic operation of
law, as If of a law of insurance.
Rights Of Many at stake.
This is the first adjustment needed,
because it affects the rights, the happi-
ness, the lives and fortunes of the larg-
est number. and because 1t is the ad-
justment for which Justice cries loudest
and with the most direct appeal. to u
hearts as well as to our consciences.
But there is regulation needed
which lies back of that and is much
more fundamental. The composite en-
ployer himself needs to have his char
acter and powers overhauled, his con-
~stitution and rights reconsidered, re-
adjusted to the Fundamental and abid-
ing interests of society. II l may
speak very plainly, we are much too
free with grants of charters to cor
porations In New Jersey. A corpora