Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1912-10-16
WII4MAR MINNESOTA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6 1912

wish to deceive you into believing
that you are helpless and must sub
NIT. They fear you may try to get
rid Of them.
"Strange as it may seem, the trust
magnates themselves have turned re-
formers and are pleading for govern
ment regulation. There is an old
saying: Beware of Greeks bearing
gifts" We would do we'll to examine
closely any scheme for regulation
Matched by those who want to be reg
ulated.
"We would do well to remember the
plea made few years ago in behalf
of the tariff. The argument was used
that the tariff should be revised by it's
friends. We were told that it would
not be safe to entrust it's revision of
the tariff to it's enemies. We fell in
with this specious plea. We know the
result. The friends of the tariff re-
vised it upward.
ut is not strange, therefore, that
the trust magnates should seek to
stem the rising tide of indignation
against the extortions of the trusts
by a similar device.
"George W. Parkins fathered the
scheme, and the President of the steel
trust adopted it as his own. Those
who own or draw profit from the
trusts are all in favor Of regulation.
They expect to control the appoint
ment Of the regulators.
|Imagine, if you can, a commis-
sion fixing the price of hundreds and
thousands Of commodities manufac-
tured In this country, fixing them, to
permanently, but from day to day, to
meet the auctuating needs Of supply
and demand. It is too absurd to
have originated in good faith outside
of bedlam. AHcommission charged
with this impossible duty would be
buried so deep under the accumula-
tion Of complaints that it would nev-
er see daylight, and the trusts would
reap harvest that would throw all
their previous performances into the
shade.
"It is a law of Nature that all
things-man included-proceed along
the line Of least resistance. Such a
commission, being composed Of men,
would come under the operation Of
TINS law. On one side organized bus
mess with self nterest as it's motive
and vast resources as it's weapon. On
the other side the umorganized mass,
each busy looking after his own af-
fairs. Only one result could come
fr,m such a situation. Prices would
soar, just as transportation rates
have done, until the consumers of the
load would be forced to the WALL"
After discussing the question Of
trusts and special privilege Mr.. Ring
dal urged the adoption Of the initia-
tive and referendum as the ''tools"
necessary for the work Of destroying
them.
"We believe in so amending our
system that whenever the majority
is satisfied that a thing should be
done, it will be done. We believe in
steady, orderly evolutio ionary progress.
We believe in meeting and overcom-
ing difficulties as they arise. What
We propose is the initiative and ref
erendum."
There is nothing startling or dam
gerous about the initiative. Every
private business in the world reserves
to its owners this power. If you hire
a person to help you in your business,
you tell him what to do. If he refus-
es or ueglects to do what you want
him to do, or refuses to do it in the
way you want it done, you always re.
serve the right to do it yourself. Nc
private business could exist ON any
other basis. You would not think o1
hiring a man for two years, or fou1
years and giving him complete con.
troll Of your business without tht
right to interfere with him That il
the way we have been conducting oul
public business. We have been con
ducting it in a way that no sane per
son would think Of conducting hi
private business.
"We propose to change this. W.
propose to apply the same kind O
common sense to our public affairs
that each and every one Of us apple,
to his private affairs. We propose t.
reserve the right to do things for ou
selves that our public servants ma,
refuse or neglect to do for us.
"The principle argument use
against the initiative is that it vii
destroy representative government.
>1t is not proposed to abolish tn
legislature. We propose to retain tn
Legislature just as it is now. We pro
pose to have it convene every tw
years, just as it does now. When i
your private business you reserve th
right to do work yourself that you
, servant neglects to do, that does NO
:, mean that you intend to- do all tn