The daily sentinel., 1914-01-20
BUSINESS METHODS MUST Be SQUARED
WITH PUBLIC OPINION AND THE LAW
CONTINUED on Page 81

CONTINUED ON Page So
other half way in a common effort
to square business methods with both
y public opinion and the law. The
/ best informed men of the business
world condemn the methods and
process and consequences of monop-
oily as we condemn them, and the
instructive Judgment of the majority
of business men everywhere goes
with them. We shall now be their
spokesmen. That is the strength of
our position and the sure prophesy
of what will ensue when our reason
able work is done.
when serious contest ends. when
men unite in opinion and purpose.
those who are to change their ways
of business joining with those who
ask fer the change, 1t is possible to
effect 1t in the way in which prudent
and thoughtful and patriotic men
would wish to see it brought about
with as few. as slight, as easy and
simple business Establishments as
possible in the circumstances, moth
ing essential disturbed. nothing torn
up by the roots, no parts rent asun-
der. which can be left in wholesome
combination. Fortunately no mea-
sures of sweeping or novel change
are necessary. 1t will be understood
that our object is not to unsettle
business or anywhere seriously to
break its established courses
athwart. On the contrary we desire
the laws we are about to pass to be
the bulwarks and safeguards of in
dustry against the forces that have
disturbed IL. What we have to do
can be done in new spirit, in
thoughtful moderation, without rev.
olution of any untoward kind.
Caring for Monopoly.
I'VE are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intol-
cradle and our program is founded
on that conviction. II will be a
comparative but not radical or un-
acceptable program, and thesS are
its items, the changes which opinion
deliberately sanctions and for which
business waits:
1T awaits with acquiescence in
the first place for laws which Will
effeetually prohibit and prevent
such interlockings of the personnel
of the directorates of great corpora
tions-banks and railroads, indus
trial. commercial and public service
bodies-as in effect result in making
those who borrow and those who
| lend practically one and the same,
those who sell and those who buy
are but the same persons trading
with one another under different
names and in different combinations
and those who affect to compete in
fact partners and masters of some
whole field of business. Sufficient
time should be allowed, of course, in
which to effect these changes of or
ganization, without inconvenience or
confusion.
such a prohibition will work
much more than mere negative
good by correcting the serious evils
which have arisen because, for ex-
ample, the men who have been the
directing spirits of the great invest
ment banks have usurped the place
which belongs to independent indus
trial management working in its
own behalf. 1t will bring new men,
new energies, new spirit of initia-
tive, new blood. into the manage
ment of our great business enterpris-
es. 1t will open the field of indus
trial development and origination to
scores of men who have been obliged
| to serve when their abilities enti-
tied them to direct. 1t will immense
ly hearten the young man coming on
and will greatly enrich the business
activities of the whole country.
"In the second place, business men
as well as those who direct the pub
| lie affairs now recognize and recog-
nize with painful clearness, the
great harm and injustice which has
been done to many, If not all, of the
great railroad systems of the country
by the way in which they have been
| financed and their own distinctive
interests subordinated to the inter-
ests of the men who financed them
and of other business enterprises
which those men wished to promote.
The country is ready, therefore, to
accept, and accept with relief, as well
as approval, a law which will confer
on the interstate commerce commits
sion the power to superintend and
regulate the financial operations by
which the railroads are henceforth
to be supplied with the money they
need for their proper development to
meet the rapidly-growing require
ments of the country for increased
and improved facilities of Transports
tion. We cannot postpone action in
this matter without leaving the rail
roads exposed to many serious han
dicaps and hazards; and the prosper
ity of the railroads and the prosper
ity of the country are inseparably
connected. Upon this question those
who are chiefly responsible for the
actual management and operation OF
the railroads have spoken very plain
ly and very earnestly, with a purpose
we ought to be quick to accept. 1t
II Will hp gfnn and a i'm,
tant one, toward the necessary sepa-
ration of the business of the produc-
tion from the business of transpor-
tation.
/ ''The business of the country,
awaits also, has long waited and has
suffered because it could not obtain,
further and more explicit legislative
definition of the policy and meaning
] of the eNisiir, Q. anti-irIL.t 10 Mn