Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1911-04-27
PUBLICITY AND
PUBLIC CONTROL
J. j. HILL SEES SOLUTION OF PRES.
ENT S1ACllATl0N N PUBLICITY
OF CORPORATION MATTERS

st. Paul, Mlnn., April 70
James J. Hill, the Great North
Northern Pacific railroad mag
nate, sees in publicity of corpora
tion matters and intelligent public
control of the corporations them
selves, q long step towards the So
luton of the present era of busi-
ness stagnation.
And the United States needs
a saviour says Mr.. Hill. THE
people have demanded not only
the best but an improvement on
the best, and they will now have
to pay accordingly. If they don't
pay in money, they must pay in
prosperity. The business of the
country increases Is per cent ev-
cry wear; the facilities for hand
ling this new business increase
only 1.6 of that. The difference
in the ratio is too great and q bal
ance must be struck, sometime,
else there will be q complete
breakdown of service or prosper
ity.
"Why don't the facilities for
handling business increase more
rapidly9 Because the men be-
hind those facilities are afraid to
spend their money for extensions
and improvements"
Mr.. Hill had long been an OK
ponent of publicity of corporation
affairs and looks upon that US one
of the means of bringing corpora
tion and public together.
THE people are entitled to
kknow what the public service cor
porations are doing and the con.
ditions under which they transact
business" he says. II have be-
lieved in, and have advocated,
publicity of corporation reports
for many years. When the pub.
lie becomes conversant with cor.
norst;on. a fairs and Is convinced
that it is seeing from the inside,
much Of the feeling against the
great business concerns will pass
away. That will be one of the ef-
fects of publicity.
]. In the matter of public control
of quasi-public concerns, Mr..
Hill is q firm advocate, but he
wants that control to be intelli-
gent; he wants only trained men
! in the places of control.
"A corporation is a piece of pa
per bearing the stamp and seal OF
the state," he says. Its life is
created by the people and natur-
ally the people should have some
word in making the rules under
which it transacts business. That
proposition is one l have preached
for years and now / am glad to
see it making headway among
common carrier corporations.
Last week President Nudge of
Rock Island railroad declared for
public control of railroads; George
M. Reynolds, president Continen-
tai and Commercial National bank
of Chicago did the same thing the
week before; T. N. Vail, presi-
dent American Telephone and
Telegraph recently made an Off
.cial report to his board of direc-
tors in which he took a firm stand
for both publicity and public con-
troll.
''But that control must be in
telligently administered. Public
control simply because it is con-
troll by the public, is not all. 1t
must be intelligent, as | have al
ways contended. Intelligent peo-
pie will ask and expect nothing
more. Vail, Reynolds and the
others are right in advocating
publicity and public control. Both
are things which eventually will
20 far towards making q good
feeling between the corporations
and the people, and will assist in
settling much of the antagonism
which now seems to prevail. "