Norwich bulletin., 1911-01-19

l fearful processes of political ev0iptlon which began a half million or more years ago?
 The most puzzling problems of to- day, for instance, circle around the | control of corporations and the pres I ervation of state rights. Now both | the corporation and the constitution | are very new as things go- and they are both Connecticut inventions. III | 1918, in May, Connecticut for the f1rst | time in history made it lawful for men l to associate their capital in business, | free from individual responsibility TOT | the debts, of the association. rms | Yankee invention, together With the | Sherman act. is thought by many to | be responsible for the modern trust, | for the former made it possible, and | the latter made any other form o1 | combination illegal. However tnls may be- recent legislation has put the trust at the mercy of the federal gov | ernment, and today government pros ecutions are pending against sixteen | tai in the country, the purpose or which is to test the legality of these | combinations and punish any ana all violations of the law. Nevertne- | less, T think the modern corpora tions should cheer up; bad as things may seem to them to be, they are not what they used to be. Eighty two years ago, when some enterprisina gentlemen wanted to build railroad | from New Haven to New York, Roger | H. sherman and Simeon Baldwin and many others of consequence and in- | fluence in the community opposed the | construction of the railroad upon broad grounds As Messrs. Sherman and Baldwin put it in their memorial | to the general assembly. the railroad l would produce more harm than good.' would result in great injus- sr,.rr r1rix- Q and would also 'annihilate competl- tion,'' and "the expense of travel would depend upon the will and pleas urN of a united interest, which would | find its advantage in the highest pos | sible rate of fare" Today we have
 another Simeon Baldwin who believes that the Sherman act should De amended "so as not to forbid reason able agreements for reasonable re- straint of trade"
 I quote from an opinion of our learned jurist and present governor, published in Leslie's Weekly of Octo- Der 20. 1910 "The railroads of the the country would have sold for when
 the New Haven road was built. They pay about double the wages paid ln other countries and carry freight for about half the foreign rates"
 I have no interest in the railroads
  cheap as possible, and I mention them as representing, perhaps, the largest amount of capital engaged in any one line of business. The railroads, as common carriers, should be made to serve the public fairly and openly managers of corporations who violate the law should be severely punished, but the law that interferes with the full and free growth and prosperity of our transportation facilities or crip
 ples with legal restrictions the free commercial customs of the people brings industrial death.
 Connecticut's other invention-an
 indestructible state in an indissoluble
 union-is a wonderful bit of political
 machinery. It ran fairly well for
 seventy years, and then it went de- cidedly wrong for almost ten years. Since that time it has astonished civ
 ilization by its powers and benefits.
 Now we hear again the voice of the
 doubter calling upon the states to be-
 ware the encroachment of the nation.
 It is easy to say that the states must
 insist upon their sovereign rights and
 prerogatives. and no one will question
 the incalculable benefits of community
 supervision of public affairs and do-
 mestic economies. Yet we know that
 just as surely as economy is the moth
 CT of surplus, just as surely interstate
 commerce dreads nothing as much as
 the hindrances of conflicting and re-
 straining state laws and regulations. It
 is well to remember, too, our experi-
 ence from 17S3 to 178S and from
 1860 to 1870. Let me read to you
 variety of patriotism described by
 Henry Watterson in the "CompTo-
 misses of Life.v Diogenes seeking an
 honest man, might, in the history of
 the Irish. union, come upon parallel case in poor Hussey Bergh, who re-
 -n +IxA him, abandoned the borough of Kill
 mainham, for which he sat, and which the British ministry guaranteed him for life, voted against the bill which robbed his country of it's freedom and
 was found dead in bed, with six pence on the n1antel, and a paper, on which was scrawled Ireland forever and be damned to Kilmainham."
 Now, this is the sort of patriotism that thrills us with approval. but what are we to do when there are two Ire lands to love- two flags to defend? In 1861 Lincoln made his choice, and Lee made another. Was not Lee de- lending his Ireland and the free cus- toms of his people and the rights of his state as these were handed down to him by the fathers? Can we say that he was justified? Has not time with it's merciful healing all the more clearly demonstrated that Lee was driven to a hateful choice by a few brutes. blinded by the lust of power and slavery? And yet Lee and the tens of thousands who died for his cause without right to reason why represented the citizenship of the south. In a recent address I said that the gaming table, the duel, the chase and the mistress furnished entertain ment &or the true gentleman of the soutR I was criticised for this lan- guage, and justly so, if taken literally. We ll.know that the true gentleman of the south was the equal of any gen. tleman of the world and that they suffered the loss of everything with precisely the same spirit that pos sessed the heroic soul of Hussey Bergh. but neither time, nor love of brother, nor love of state, can lift the burden of crime from the cannonbalI that hurried from the match of Ed mund Ruffin to break the walls of Sumter.
 gress nor constitution express the will of the people? This, we say, is gov ernment of measures, not men. Are there not times when the man is all we have to save the state? Let me quote from Lincoln's first inaugural address: '1 do not forget the position assumed by some that cons stitutional questions are to be decided by the su- preme court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to the suit as to the object of that suit while they are also entitled to very high respect and con sideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the government At the same time, if the policy of the