The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1912-01-31
URPESS|M|SM
IS CONTAGIOUS.
Solicitor General Delivers
Sermon on Condi-
tions.
VIEW With ALARM ATTITUDE
Has Become Fashion of
Bankers to Bewail Way
Things Are Going.
Country is Prospering But
it is Fashion to
Complain.
VIEW WITH ALARM ATTITUDE

Washington, Jan. 31.-"The coun-
try Is not going to the dogs" might
be called the text of a sermon on
present conditions delivered the 9TH
er day to a reporter from the United
Press. by Frederick Lehmann. solicit
or general of the United States and
one of the most brilliant and pro-
8ressive legal minds in the Taft cab
met. Lehman had been asked if
the activities of the government in
prosecuting corporations under the
Sherman law. and the movement i'm
many states FOR popular government.
were not hound to produce hard
times.
1T is the fashion now for busl-
ness men to view conditions with
alarm he replied. "a sort of con-
tagious pessimism has swept the
country but there is small founda-
tlon for It,"
AS . numerous illustration of his
point he read n letter which ne had
just received fro ma bank OF which
he Is n stockholder. But instead OF
starting with the first word he read
tho last paragraphs first and saved
the first sentence for the end The
latter part Of the letter bewailed tho
tottering financial conditions of the
country and looked to the future with
gloomy forebodings. The first sen.
tence bade Laymann find enclosed a
check to cover the regular semi-an.
nual dividend and two percent ad.
ditional dividend.
That bank" he continued. ais
I making money at the rate of 12 per
cent a year, and yet the officers com
pain OF business. But what Is true
OF 1t Is largely true of the very cor
porations whose officers are prophesy
/ Ing panic and warning against tho
consequences of continual governen.
tai Interference with business. Tho
country is prospering. but II is now
fashionable to complain.
| I'VE don't have to go very far
back in our history to find another
period when 1t was the fashion OF
business to proclaim that the in
croachment of government upon cor.
porations was bringing ruin on tho
country. That was when the apita.
ton Of the grangers brought aboul
the first state laws regulating railroad
, rates. .ntEsys,
The idea that the public might
nave something to say about what a
railroad could charge for its services
was proclaimed a dangerous. confsca
tory. unconstitutional Revolutionary
! doctrine. Yet the laws were passed
! ana the supreme court Upheld them,
statlng that the state has as much
constitutional right to regulate rail
road rates as the Director of Column
bia had to regulate the Congress Of
ferries cabs and chlmney-sweepers
The fisrt granger laws were passed
IN 1879. Bye and bye the railroads
forgot their hurt, and l venture To
| say the world never saw such rail-
road expansion and prosperity as oc-
Cured in this country after regulating
laws were on the statute books.
Much of the complaints against
| government aggression upon business
results because men lose sight of the
| public nature of corporation. Orig
| lnally when corporations were grant
ed by act of congress 1t was apparen,
that the people were simply delepat-
ing individuals to perform q nublic
service. And of course they have the
I q n
fundamental right to regulate the
corporation in the performance of the
| service.
But nowadays when a corporation
IS formed In private office by n
iew scratches of pen the incorpora-
tors forget the public nature of tho
corporation and regard it as none of
the publio's business what the cor
porotion does, so long as II does NOT
violate the laws. This is a false idea
OF the theory OF corporation.
"rhe supreme court decision which
made clear the constitutional right
or states and the federal government
To regulate railroads. made It plain
that the government has an equally
good right to regulate any corporo
tion' whether engaged I'm the busl-
ness OF transportation or any other
service. The day will come, I think
when the people win exercise tbIs
right though the law makers have
not yet seen 1T to extend the pov.
a Inn M