The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-01-20
THE DAILY GATE CITY

the individuals who use the instra-
msntalities OF business to do things
which public policy and sound bust
ness practice condemn
Every act OF business is done at
the command or upon the initiative
OF some ascertatnabie rssss1n, OF
group OF persons, These should be
held individually responsible and the
punishment should fall upon them. not
upon the business organization o;
which they make Illegal use.
It should be one OF the main OBJ
iects Of our legislation to diyest such
persons of their corporate cloak and
dsal with them as with those who do
not represent their corporations but
merely by deliberate intention, break
the law. Business men, the country
through, would, am sure. applaud
us Il we were to take effectual steps
to see that officers and directors Of
great business bodies were prevented
from bringing them and the business
of the country into disrspute and dan.
ger.
Other questions remain which will
need very thoughtful and practical
treatment. Enterprises In these mod
ern days of great individual fortunes
are oftenttmes interlocked, not being
but by the fact that the greater part
of their corporate stock is owned by
i a single person or group of persons
! who are in some way intimately re-
lated In interest. We are agreed,
take It, that holding companies should
/ be prohibited but what OF the controu-
! ing private ownership of individuals
or actually cooperative groups OF In
dividuals? Shall the private owners
of capital stock be suffered tor be-
themselves in effect holding COM
panies? We do not wish, suppose,
to forbid the purchase Of stocks by
any person who pleases to buy them
in such quantities as he can afford.
or In any way arbitrarily to limit the
sale of stocks to bonaflde purchasers.
No16I1l Nc . tu0 o"hSi , vi btOOh,
when their voting power in several
companies was thought to be indie
pendent of one another would consti-
tute actual control to make election
I In which OF them they will exercise
their right to vote? This question /
venture for your consideration.
There Is another matter in which
imperative consideration, justice and
fair play suggest thoughtful RENE
dial action. Not only do many of the
combinations affected, or sought to be
affected in the industrial world, work
an injustice upon the public in gem
eral; they also directly and seriously
injure the individuals who are put
cut OF business In one unfair way or
another by the many dislodging and
exterminat,ng forces of combination.
| hope that we shall agree In giving
private individuals who claim to
have been injured by these processes
the right to found their suits for re-
dress upon the facts and judgments
proved and entered in suits by the
government when the government has
upon It's own initiative sued the com
binations complained of and won its
suit, and that the statute OF limita-
tons shall be suffered to run against
such litigants only from the date OF
conclusion of the governments action.
Tt is not fair that private lti-
CANT should be obliged to set up and
establish again the facts which the
government has proved he cannot
afford, he has not the power, to make
use Of such processes of inquiry as
the government has command OF.
Thus shall individual justice be done
while the processes OF business are
rsctihed and squared with the gen.
eral con science.
7 have laid the case before you no
doubt as It Hes in your own mind and
as It lies in the thought OF the coun-
try What must every candid man
say of the suggestions have laid
before you of the plain obligations OF
which have reminded you! That
these are new things for which the
country is not prepared? No: but
they are old things now familiar and
must moreover be undertaken II we
are to square our laws with the
thought and desire OF the country.
Until these things are done, conscien-
tous business men Of the country will
be unsatisfed. They are In these
things our mentors and colleagues.
We are about to write the additional
articles OF our constitution OF peace,
the peace that is honor and freedom
and prosperity"