The Penn's Grove record., 1913-01-17
WILSON'S MESSAGE
TO LEGISLATURE
President elect Strikes a Per-
sonal Note in His Second and
LastAnnuaI Communication
to New Jersey Solons
PROUD OF STATES RECORD
To the Legislature

10 the Legislature.
l trust that you will pardon me if
the first note | strike in this my sec
ond annual message to your honor
able bodies is a personal note. / can
not forget that this, though only my
second, is also my last annual message
to you. l shall presently lay down the
duties of Governor of New Jersey. l
cannot turn away from this great of
fee or give up the privileges it has
brought me without expressing my
gratitude to the people of New Jersey
that they gave me this opportunity to
serve them, and my sense also of in
innate comradeship and obligation to-
wards the men in the Legislature of
the State with whom l have been per-
mitted to work in carrying out the
reforms of the last two years.
They have been very full and event
full years, to which l hope the people
OF the State will always look back
with approval and pride. We have &C
complished for New Jersey many
things of high consequence which for
many a long year had waited and
cried out to be done. Our pride in
their accomplishment has nc touch of
boastfulness in it, but only the deep
qualification of having been priv
LEGGED to do so much that was for the
common benefit. The legislative ses-
sion of 1911 will, l venture to say,
long remain remarkable in the annals
of the State for the number and i'm
portance of the reforms enacted, and
those of us who were associated in
the work of that notable session will,
SO long as we live, have the happiness
of looking back upon it as upon one
of the most satisfactory experiences
of our public service. Certainly l shall
forget it; and l cannot turn
away from the great office in which l
have enjoyed such s~atisfactions with
out avowing the pride | have taken in
it and the deep obligation l feel to the
with me in the days of doubt and
struggle. l am happy to have had a
part in such things along with such
men.
But not all that waited to be done
was done by the Legislature of 1911.
1t was impossible that everything
should be accomplished in a single
session. The rapidly changing cir
cumstances of the time, moreover,
both in the political and in the indus
trial world, render it necessary that
a constant process of adjustment
should go on. 1t is my duty to call
your attention to the further changes
in our laws which seem to be most
Immediately necessary.
The corporation laws of the State
VIGOROUSLY stand in need of altera-
ton. They are manifestly i~nconsist-
ent with the policy of the Federal
Government and with the interests of
the people in the all-important matter
of monopoly, to which the attention
of the whole nation is now so earnest
ly directed. The laws of New Jersey
as they stand, so far from checking
monopoly, actually encourage it. They
explicitly permit every corporation
formed in New Jersey, for example,
to purchase, hold, assign, and dispose
of as it pleases the securities of any
and all other corporations of this or
any other State and to exercise at
pleasure the full rights of ownership
in them, including the right to vote
as stockholders. This is nothing less
than an explicit license of holding
companies. This is the very method
of forming vast combinations and Gre
ating monopoly, against which the
whole country has set its face; and l
am sur that the people of New Jer-
Sey do not dissent from the common
judgment that our law must prevent
these things and prevent them very
effectually.
1t is our duty and our present op-
p~ortunity to amend the statutes of the
State in this matter not only, but also
in such a way as to provide some re-
sponsible official supervision of the
whole process of Incorporation and
provide, in addition, salutary checks
upon unwarranted and fictitious in
creases of capital and the issuance of
securities not based upon actual bona
ide valuation. The honesty and sound
ness of business alike depend upon
such safeguards. No legitimate bust
ness will be injured or harmfully re-
stricted by them. These are matters
which affect the honor and good faith
of the State. We should act upon
them at once and with clear purpose.
The people of the State are at pres
ent, moreover, at the mercy of invest
ment companies of every kind. Secur-
tiles of any and every sort can be sold
In New Jersey by irresponsible per-