The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-02-21
A CHARTER OF DEMOC.
RACY WAS SUBJECT
CONTINUED from Page II

ment. a man whom his neighbors look
up to and respect.
Yet nowadays. many men of this
kind. when they come to make nee
essary trade agreements with one
another, find themselves in danger
of becoming unwilling transgressors
of the law. n r at a loss to know
what the law forbids and what it per-
mits. This is all wrong. There
should be a fixed governmental policy,
Il policy which shall clearly define
and punish wrong-doing. and shall
give in advance full information to
any ma as to Just what he can and
just what he cannot legally and prop
erly do.
ut is absurd and wicked to treat
the deliberate lawbreaker as OH an
exact par with the maj eager to obey
the law whose only desire Is to find
out from some competent govern
mental authority what the law is and
then live W to it. 1t is absurd to
endeavor to regulate business in the
interest of the public by means of
long-drawn law suits without n ac-
compartment of administrative con
troll and regulation. and without any
attempt to discriminate between the
honest man who has succeeded in
business because of rendering a serv>
ice to the public and the dishonest
man who has succeeded in business
by cheating the public.
ut is imperative to exercise over
big business a control and supervis-
ion which is unnecessary as regards
small business. I do not believe in
criminal. The mere fact of size, how
ever. does unduestionably carry the
potentiality OF such grave wrong-do-
ing that there should be by law pro-
vision made for the strict supervision
and regulation of these great indus
trial concerns doing an interstate
business much as we now regulate
the transportation agencies which are
engaged in interstate business.
"The antitrust law does good in
SO far as it can be invoked against
computations which really are
olies or which restrict production
or which artificially raise prices. But
in so far as its workings are uncer-
tain, or as it threatens corporations
which have lot been guilty of anti
social conduct. it does harm. More
over, it cannot by itself accomplish
more than a trifing part of the gov
ornamental regulation of big business
which is needed. The nation and the
states nus cooperate in this mat
ter.
Among the states that have en-
tered this field Wisconsin has taken
Il leading place. Following Senator
LaFollette, a number of practical
workers and thinkers in Wisconsin
have turned that state into an ex-
detrimental laboratory of wise gov
ornamental action in aid of social and
Industrial justice. They have initial
ed the kind of progressive govern
lnent which means not merely the
preservation of true democracy, but
the extension of the principle of true
democracy into industrialism as we'll
us into politics.
Demand for Square Deal,
Our demand is that big business
give the people a square deal and that
the people give Il square deal to n
mar engaged in big business who
honestly endeavors to do what is right
and proper. On the other hand, any
corporation. big or little. which has
gained it's position by unfair methods
and by interference with the rights
of others, which has raised prices or
limited output in improper fashion
and been guilty of demoralizing and
corrupt practices, should not only be
broken up, but it should be made
the business of some competent gov
e%rnlnental body by constant super
vision to see hat it does not come
together again, saw under such strict
control as to insure the community
against all danger of a repetition Of
the bad conduct.
The chief trouble with big bust
ness a arisen from the fact that
big business has so often refused to
abide by the principle of the square
deal; the opposition which I person
ally have encountered from big BUSH
ness has in every case arisen not be-
cause | did not give a square deal but
because 1 did.
All business into which the ele.
ment of monopoly in any way or de-
gree enters, and where it proves in
practice impossible totally to elimin-
t this element of monopoly, should
be carefully supervised. regulated.
thority; and such control should be
exercised by administrative, rather
than by judicial. officers. No effort
should be made to destroy a big cor
poration merely because 1t is big.
merely because it has shown itself a
peculiarly efficient business instru-
ment.
1.-The legislature should make it
more clear eXactlv what methods are
illegal. and then the judiciary will be
in a better position to punish ade-
iSsHkSiS VIZ lllOSc WIN III.
sist on defying the clear legislative
DEGREES. 1 do not believe any abso-
Lutte private monopoly is justified, but
if Il great combinations are prop
erly supervised, SO that immoral prac-
tees are prevented, absolute mon
opoly will not como to pass, as the
laws of competition and efficiency are
against it.
Shape your constitutional action
IN that Tho nrnI 1rrsl1 ~ -I-
their legislative bodies, or failing
that, by direct popular vote, to pro-
vide Workmen's compensation acts, to
regulate the hours Of labor for chill
dren and for women, TO provide for
their safety while at work, and to
prevent overwork or work under I'M
hygienic or unsafe conditions. See
to it that no restrictions are placed
upon Legislative powers that will pre-
vent the enactment of laws under
which your people can promote the
general welfare. the common good.
The Machinery.
SO much for the ends of govern
ment and I have, of course, merely
sketched in outline what the ends
should be Now for the machinery
by which these ends are to be ac-
hieved; and here again remember I
only sketch in outline and do not for
a moment pretend to work out in de-
tail the methods Of achieving your
purposes.
"In the first place. I believe in the
ballot. You cannot get good
service from the public servant II you
cannot see him, and there is no more
effective way of hiding him than by
mixing him up with a multitude Of
Others so that they are none Of them
important enough to catch the eye
of the average. workaday citizen. The
nnnnlx In Aa.hll. H. 81