Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1914-04-14

nor's chair and despite the splendid
ability and fautless personnel OF the
eminSlt Democrats who we're on that
ticket with him. Had we given battle
I TO the common enemy upon any other
issue than the administration OF ]. @.
w. Beckham. Hager. Bosworth. Hen
bricks and Taffoon and the rest OF
them would have swept the state by a
/ majority OF 10000
/ At a glance II would seem hard to
/ find some new fault in an admlnistra-
ton so often assalled. which always
has and always will prove ,nmillstone
about the neck Of the Democracy Of
Kentucky. Yet so replete Is his seven
years Of authority. with the cruel sac
rifice Of the peoples rights and the
shameless service to powerful and
privileged interests. that | have no oc-
casion to repeat any criticism of his
conduct previously made, no matter
how just or well established. He
boasts too soon that Gin my long and
exhaustive search of his record have
found only three measures upon which
to base an absurd charge"
Let him not lay that flattering unc-
ton to his soul" ] have just begun
to analyze and to expose his official
acts. Before this campaign closes his
former critics will find that they have
been mere cleaners all in this bound
| less field of official sin.
And now state, and Mr.. Beckman
will not dare to question or deny it,
that these acts originated. not with
/ the eminent gentleman who introduced
them, but in the offices of the counsel
for the corporations. who subsequently
were to become the immediate benefi-
| Charles of their enactment-the South
ern Pacific and the Louisville and
{ Nashville Railroad companies. Mr..
4 Beckham asks I'm felgned surprise. rs
1t not strange that no one, either be
/ fore or since the passage of those laws
many years ago, has ever found rea-
son to criticise them or to seek to have
them repealedT No, it is not at all
strange, since the enactment OF those
laws, if we are to believe his political
godfathers, Messrs. Knott and Saufely.
either Mr.. Beckham or Augustus e.
! Wilson have been the actual governors
of Kentucky, so far as the control of
legislation is concerned. and it would
have been an easier task to have d.
vorced Wilson from the tobacco trust
than to have got by Mr.. Beckham and
that valiant pair now active in his be-
half.
Over such legislation as that their
guard is sleepless. Sam watches while
Percy prays.
II legislation of this character had
been repealed and condemned else
where, wherever right thinking and
forward looking men had the power to
wipe 1t from the statute books, II
should not, Of course. be tolerated In
Kentucky.
Ten minutes inspection Of the stat.
utes of any progressive state will
teach him that those who seek to pre-.
vent railways from operating coal
companies and steel mills from own.
ing timberlands and town sites have
had no need to resort to dishonest
methods to secure the aid and ap,
| proval of progressive and intelligent
men in the condemnation of the per.
nicious and perilous latitude still CIV
en- to railroads and other public utili.
ties In Kentucky.
Edgar II. Farrar, president Of the
American Bar association, in an ad-
dress recently delivered in Boston.
Aug. 80, 1911, denounced such acts in
scathing and unmeasured terms Says
Mr.. Farrar:
ITO my mind, the most vicious of ali
the provisions in the statutes above
enumerated Is that authorizing one cor
poration to own and vote stock in an
other. This provision is the mother Of
the holding company and the trust. It
provides a method for combining un.
der one management and control cor
poratiOns from one end of the nation
to the other. Before these statutes
were passed the courts of the country
had held with great unanimity that 1t
is against public policy for one corpo-
ration to hold and vote stock in anoth.
er, and the general ground of the doc
trine is that such stockholding tends
to restrain trade and to foster mono
poly. That this doctrine is true has
been demonstrated by the fact that
most of the great trusts have clothed
themselves in the form of holding
companies"
Mr.. Beckham says no one either be-
fore or since the passage of those laws
many years ago has ever found cause
to criticlse them or TO seek to have
them repealed, and then this man di-
lates on my ignorance. Laws of this
character have been condemned In
congress and out of it by lawyers, leg.
islators, political economists and by
progressive governors everywhere.
He would have you believe that |
never said a word against permitting
/ one corporation to hold the stock of