The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-02
PRESIDENT MELLEN DECLARES
 IT IS UNCERTAINTY THAT
 HURTS THE BUSINESS WORLD
New Haven Roads Head Goes Over Situation in Lengthy Interview-Sees No Railway Monopoly-Hits Initia-
 i've, Referendum and Recan-Government Ownership

In an interview of remarkable i'm
 port in the current issue of the Out look, President MeIlen of the New
 Haven road has discussed decisively and analysed keenly the business sit
 to the query, Whats the matter with | business?''
 Says President Mellen:
 '@The two elements which seem to me dominant in the present situation are suspicion and uncertainty. The public mind has got nto a morbid condition concerning large wealth and cumulated a handsome fortune,. it is taken for granted that he must have done so dishonestly; if a corporation is doing business on a big scale, in of a number of smaller concerns, it must have vio ated the law against monopoly. This attitude on the part of the public has a serious effect on picion. The man of means fears to risk his money in new enterprises which may later fall under the ban; the managers of great producing com panies trim their trade to the mar rowest compass within which they can keep going, for they know not at wh at moment they may be haled before the bar of judgment and subjected to penalties which will cripple them. So business, which ought now to be ac- tive and prosperous, nas become tor what is going to turn up.
 ''I know how the present dfScom- fort affects trade, because not only does our railway system have a mul- titude of New England's leading pro- ducers for customers, but some of them are on my board of directors. Look about you, and you will see that manufacture everywhere are turn ar.0I, ar obliged to, cutting expenses to the last limit, and hesitating to take any for ward step, because they have no idea what kind of a tariff is coming out of the Congressional caldron next win ter. If they knew anything positive ly-eVen that the new tariff was go- ing to be one that would hit them hard-they could adjust their business to that and go ahead; it's the uncer- tainty that kills. In the same way, no corporation manager knows wheth- CT he is keeping within the law or not. I never venture to move without a lawyer at each elbow; and then I can't be sure, though acting on the best advice I can command, that I am not making mistakes. If my mistake not only obliged to repair it financial ly, but liable to be branded as a criminal It is not a pleasant situa- tried to apply to it would prove only pa iatiVes at best. In short, the con dition of business is a good deal like a fever; we all hope, and expect, that the patient will recover by and by, but, as far as we can see, the dis ease will have to run it's uncertain course"
 Reasons For, Situation.
 How came we, in your opinion, to reach this pass?' was asked
 ''It is due to several causes, operat- ing in succession or in combina tion. A few years ago business was moving along without much disturbance of its surface. Those of us who could look underneath saw that many things were going on which ought not to: some of the big concerns were trea ting the law with contempt, and lesser ones took this a Justification for doing the same themselves. Of course such a state of affairs was un- Ivh holesome, and called for cutting out. President Roosevelt undertook to ap- ply the knife. Meanwhile, the public mind had been worked up by various agitators to a sort of frenzy, and, as soon as the process of official surgery began, a clamor arose for deeper and deeper, more and more indjscrimin- ate cutting. The Taft administ -ation followed. and its surgery was still more extensive; but the public thirst for hood seemed to be whetted, rath- CT than appeased, by everything done for 1t.
 Not Against Law Enforcement
 Don't misunderstood me as object