The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1912-06-27
REGULATE or Own All Business.

Regulate or Own All Business.
From the New Orleans Picayune.]
The regulation Of all private corpora
tions for the transaction of the vast
business of the country or the Selling
and owning and operating Of all bust
ness agencies Of the country is propo-
sition which is up for settlement.
Without discussing the means by
which the Government is to get posses
sion Of all property and means of pro-
duction, transportation and distribution,
with no other possibility in sight but
confiscation, the entire population would
become Government servants, working
for wages, upon the same dead level
under the control of an oligarchy OF des-
pots. Since no public business has
been as well and cheaply done under
Government control as by private enter
prise and interest, Government owner
ship is the last resort of extreme radi-
calism.
Turning to the regulation of trusts, it
is found more reasonable and practical,
affording better results.
It has been well said that trusts are
the logical and necessary result of hu-
man effort to provide for the needs Of a
vast and rapidly growing population.
They are the medium of modern wealth
production and the inevitable culmina-
ton of process of industrial develop
ment running through many genera
tions. The foundation for the trusts
was laid when the old-time hand tool
gave way, to the powerful modern
machine, when the modest mechanics
workshop was supplanted by the i'm
mense factory and when individual work
was succeeded by the system of mass
production. Their growth was deter
mined by the application of steam and
electricity to mechanical uses and by
the appearance of railroads and steam
boats, telegraphs and cables.
The independent mechanic belongs tt
the period of individual custom work
the partnership and the small corpora
ton answer the requirements of loca
markets, the trusts typify the era O.
national and international markets
That the trusts are not accidental il
their origin and growth is shown by thu
fact that they have sprung up during
approximately the same period in ever!
country of advanced industrial develop
ment. Germany and Austria, England
and France, have their trusts, as we'll a
the United States. The trusts thriv'
under the policy of free trade almost a
we'll as under that of protection. The.
adjust themselves to all conditions.
The trusts have developed crime
fraud and corruption in commercial lif
to degree hitherto unknown. In thei
mad race for profits, the dollar has be
come their sole aim of life, code of NOR
ais and religion. Human life and wei
fare count for nothing. They adulter
ate, falsify and poison foodstuffs to en-
nance their profits. They neglect safe
guards in their factories, mines an
mills to save the expense. They neglec
prudence in the operation of their road
and steamboats, to save time. For tim
is money, and money is more preciou
than life.
What, then, is to be done? The an
swer is: Regulate them" Punis
them for their criminal acts and brinI
their operations to the usual standard
Z of honesty and justice. In other words
, the Government will manage the indus
, tries, direct the operations and do tn
, accounting Of the trusts and leave to tn
, owners practically nothing but the tas
) of collecting the profits. There is n
escape from this conclusion. Govern
r ment regulation must be thorough an
, extend to every operation. 1t can b
, done if we have just laws and homes
officials to enforce them. In default {
such public honesty, how could Gov
eminent ownership be anything bu
graft and jobbery?