The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-15


 big business has been successful chiefly to the extent of alarming all business, and has not been successful as regards thoroughly and adequately controlling the very kinds of big busisess which ft is more urgently necessary thus to con- troll
 The unwisdom of endeavoring to strangle business instead of controlling 1t ought to be evident, in the first place to those who consider the business situ- ation as 1t affects the small business man whose welfare we must always have close at heart; and, in the next place when we consider the curious but perfectly evident fact that the worst big business concerns, and especially those which we usually associate in our minds with Wall street, have now evidently come to the conclusion that they object to a policy of just and efficient con trol much more than they do to one of pretended (and impotenD strangula- tion.
 When, four months ago. I wrote in the Outlook an article on The Trusts the People and the Square Deal" ,all street was inclined to favor the propo- sition of control, being at that time alarmed as to the workings of the anti trust act in view of the recent stan dard oil and tobacco trust decisions Obviously. however. Wall street has CldIStu US u was pi tpaitu to support the policy of honesty and eff cient control which I advocated rather than to see the ruin of both bad and good business. But the representatives of the worst kinds of big business have now concluded that the Standard Oil and tobacco trusts were not really hurt by the decision s--indeed, that they were benefited. These men care nothing for honest business or for the welfare Of the general business community if it conflicts with the policy under which they hope to thrive better than under a policy of real control. Those New Y ork dailies which ars owned in or di- rectly or indirectly controlled by Wall street have shown by their recent utter ances that they have made up their minds to fight the effort at just control of big business. Evidently they prefer a policy of pretense of destruction which they know to be chiefly sham rather than policy of real control which would correct evils and yet pro mote prosperity.
 Of course there are exceptions. There are certain big business concerns so far sighted as to see that in the long run it pays to be honest and that it will pay to trust to a policy of real control instead of to policy of make believe strangle. It is curious to see the worst of the big business interests, and the least wise ex-
  others hands, and trying to preserve the present system of chaos in business law as preferable to a system of ordered s,i- pervision and control under which we would secure definiteness of legal policy for all business, and would guarantee to big business proper treatment as an in- cident of exacting proper behavior from it. The policy I advocate would tell for the permanent prosperity of the entire honest business world: and it is opposed by the great New York dalies which speak for Wall street, because they are concerned with general prosperity only secondarily, their prime interest being to prevent the efficient control of the big trusts that do wrong; and they would rather run the risk of sacrificing the gen eral prosperity than see a thorough and real control of big business.
 What our people want is that the evils of big interests be eradicated and the advantages, the benefits, preserved. believe that our country is ripe today for d straightforward. unflinching, com mon sense treatment of the trust ques- tion. Of course, it's big question. But this country does not mind tackling big questions We did not hesitate to take the Panama canal zone because up to that time no other people had been able to control yellow fever down there. We took the zone fully realizing the awful menace of yellow fever, but believing that with our intelligence and energy we could stamp it out; and we did We did not hesitate to take Cuba because of the unsanitary condition of Havana We had the courage and the faith to believe that we could correct it: and we did In just the same way our people realize that the trust problem is big problem but that they, the people, have the hard com mon sense necessary to solve it. It will not solve itself The people must solve ii. And they must solve it by insisting on a just and wise but thorough going and efficient control Let our opponents of reactionary habit make no mistake The people are demanding more voice in af- fairs industrial no less than in affairs political. Our opponents believe that the people cannot be trusted. We believe that they can be. Why? Because they have been educated, and because they are of the stuff that gives good results under education We believe in real democracy for America tecause we have a profound faith in the moral, mental, and physical fiber of the average American man and the average American woman, and we believe that they have been educated in the true sense of the word. as the men and women of no other nation have been educated.
 We must achieve permanent prosperi- ty based on justice-a prosperity which must come by the wise and resolute ancit to control business by law. and especially by administrative work under the law. We must not pin our faith only to sue cession Of lawsuits, which, under pre- tense of strangling big business, punish real offenders inadequately, or positively benefit them, as in the case of the Stand ard Oil trust and the Tobacco trust, and at the same time are source of constant uneasiness and alarm 10 honest and up- right business men, whose anxiety s To find out the law and then to live up o