The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-01

business to make tremendous adaptations
to drastic revision Of tariff duties and
to a revolutionary alteration Of our bank
ing system. Politics has been compelling
disintegrations of corporations and the
dissolution of business combinations which
have been the natural outcome of business
growth. Politics, through oppressive reg
ulation, has all but brought the railroad
system Of the country face to face with
ultimate inability to meet fixed charges,
TO say nothing of paying dividends to the
nominal owners OF the common carriers.
And now. when business Is struggling to
adjust itself to a set of very new condi-
tons. politically contrived, It IL asked to
believe that It's dread OF coincidence OF
further readjustments to be made neces-
sary by the enactment OF the pending
antitrust bills at Washington, In merely
an unjustihabe state OF mind.
Politics cannot so easily acQuit itself
OF responsibility for trade and industrial
depression, for shrunken volumes or uaf-
fic. for lean profits and an abnormal per
centage Of unemployed labor. III our
politics were Of a different sort there
might be less excuse for the timdity
which prevails In the business community
toward an expansion Of ventures for the
sake OF conjectural profits, but mat kind
of politics would be quite willing to allow
the pending programme OF business iegis.
lAtion TO go over 70 tHo nunt a.
Congress Il would be willing to await
the popular vote In the November cleo
tons TO see n the desire or disposition
of the country was for enactment
OF the postponed programme. IL wouIo
not be politics which would surrender 20
the demands OF union labor TOR the
special privilege OF exemption rom Rws
against fnonopollstic combinations ana
conspiracies or juggle with words In such
a way as to permit the construction OF a
Legislative measure as both denying ana
refusing to labor unions the exemptions
asked.
II would he politics which recognised
that II license for combinations on LABOR
ers and OF turner's was permissible II
was only because there was principle
of combination which prompted mer-
chants and manufacturers to associate
and combine. II would be politics which
would see everywhere else in the world
an increasing combination OF enterprise
with which American business had 70
compete while the American right OF
combination was increasingly restrfcted.
Nor would Il be politics of the seaf-seek-
ing variety that aimed TO capitalize the
scandals OF corporate fnduisiuon into
VOTES for public Office.
There has been nothing for many
day which has revealed our politics IN so
antagonlstic an attitude toward busi-
ness as tne hgBTtsslNt piVpdr'h''&
carried on for n ono sided Investigation
into the railroad finance for the sake OF
the startling headlines which may be
thereby evoked from the newspapers
What the new railroad investigators are
otter is sensation. not the truth, which
n always takes more than one witness
to tell The turmoil OF tnquisitorial re-
search which Is proposed will not add 9
mile OF track to the railroad system OF
the land nor lower by the most mimi
t.sirnal fraction OF a cent the cost OF
railroad service. All tho facts necessary
for wise legislation or prudent govern
mental action are known about the rail-
roads. which have for about quarter
of a century been under the supervision
OF the Interstate Commerce Commission
hut somebody wants TO be Senator from
A Western State and there are prosuma-
bly, votes 10 be had out of another
demonstration against what Is called
Wall Street
Indeed when one considers the kind
Of politics with which business has Ia
contend establishment Is bound to be felt
that tho depression Of business has no,
become more acute. Tho Fundamental
soundness OF American values makes II
possible, however. to expect in spite OF
politics that there win bs Some business
recovery this year II good crops are
vouchsafed, although. as can be seen In
the FOREGOING review. the Cituatfon ar
fecting business 10 as yet far from being
In all respects proptious for a rapid and
expansive development OF prosperous
activity.