The Washington herald., 1913-11-17
THE ARTIFICIAL PERSON
BY GRIDLEY BEDE.

life out OF other corporations that would
not enter the combine or were not neces-
sary to it; continually capitalized or sold
more stock upon expected earnings in
! stead of upon known values Catch this
\ as an illustration: A horse will earn say
800 a day; he may net $40 a year:
reckoned at per cent interest he is
therefore worth 5000. The artificial per-
son has. in effect, capitalized such a con-
dition. The horse dies. That is the error
in capitaliZing upon expected earnings in
stead Of upon known values.
The deeds done by bad corporations ex-
tend all the way up and down the scale
They have evaded good laws. They have
aided the passage Of selfish ones. They
have puzzled over loopholes, or bored
them, in order to render legislation nuga-
tory men with the lust for wealth have
bred an unsocial whirlwind that is
threatening the good and the evil, the
Just and the unjust.
Legislative Youths.
On the other hand words fail when it
comes to describing the ''innocency' OF
legislators Let a condition in the Dis
trict of Columbia suffice to indicate what
is meant-men are assigned to guide the
destiny OF the city in the committee on
the District of Columbia who know abso-
lutely nothing of their task and will
nullify proposed and needed legislation
by deliberate absences or by proposing
mere experiments in municipal matters.
BY exactly similar fortuitous conditions
do some men come to legislate for the
wider business relations of the nation.
Accidents send men to Washington who
rank with the needless youths that rock
boats or throw stones at clean windows,
or scare the neighborhood with night
splitting yells-
Two Errors Imminent.
The public error lies in presuming that
all corporations are evil. because some
are; even as we err in assuming that
all homes are breaking UP because some
scandalous story appars in the papers.
or that the world Is rocking on its base
because there is one accident with dyna-
mite. The great quiet steam of average
good and right moves on notwithstand-
ing all surface fuss.
The legislative error lies in thinking
that peace is to be found by further eX-
citing a perturbed public mind. The
artificial person" is so easy TO denounce:
words piled on words come glibly when
there is none to answer back Yet to
raise a man of straw and knock him
down again is mock heroics and the
public will begin to see this when IL
realizes that practically every construC-
tive activity the nation over is carried
on by corporations whose shares are iT
the hands Of the thrifty everywhere
The Present iStuation.
Here. then. We have the situation. On
one side wrongdoers among corporations
in such evidence as to obscure the view
of rightdoers. On the other side are many
men of narrow training who have seldom
looked outside their districts on national
questions, yet suddenly find themselves
rossessed of national power. Both are
in the wrong and both will do irrepar-
able injury IL they attempt a finish fight.
Business Guidance Needed.
Broader legal control of corporate ac-
tivity is necessary. 1t is a subject for
statesmen and business men in consulta-
tion- 1t is not a politicians question
Shareholders are of all parties.
Business men suffer quickest from any
shudder of national confidence. They
know what is right or wrong or shady.
They can be OF practical aid in cutting
out business cancers. Their own prop
critics depend upon the removal Of these
evil growths-
Business men know that as society
created the corporation, so also by so
ciety must IL be controlled, else the crea-
ture is greater than the creator. There
IoTe tneS are eager 10 neIp society IN us
legislative mood.
Business men know that tventy-thres
years have gone by since the passage of
the Sherman antitrust law. Yet to this
day learned Senators do not know fully
what IL means and the Supreme Court
itself has been divided. Business men
should have been consulted twenty-thres
years ago.
The disruption of that which has built
US as an industrial nation is not neces-
sary. All that is needed is a statement of
what .'the artificial person. may do.
Business men are the doctors in such a
case. They know the patient, its public
face, its inner recesses, its family
history.
Let the consideration of facts by
statesmen and business men together
take the place of debate and prevent
the violent tearing apart of the good to
reach the evil.