The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-20
FINANCIAL REVIEW
OF THE PAST WEEK
Aspects Of the Interstate Com
merce Commissions New
Haven Report.
ANOTHER TEST OF VALUES
Ethical Standards of Business
and Politics Brought Into
Comparison.
ANOTHER TEST OF VALUES

.
which Is a static quality. Is vastly in.
fcrlor 20 the economic influence OF con-
hdencc. which Is dynamic but Il In an
excellent thing that in days like these
the fabric Of American values should
he characterized by a capacity of sheer
endurance. proving that values as a
whole are essentially sound and genuine.
The evidence affords a basis for hope
that confidence In the future OF American
values will be In the end regained and
thar the process OF developing and ex-
banding them will be renewed to the con-
tnntment and satisfaction OF people
at present distressed by an exaggerated
emphasis laid on tho imperfections and
defects OF our recent economic growth.
A "a token OF the progress OF ideas tho
Interstate Commerce Commissions latest
report on the New Haven tragedy IL
likely 70 become a landmark In American
economic history. So regarded, the re-
port has encouraging aspects, but other
wise II has furnished another severe test
OF the financial and business situation
by its shocking accentuatlon OF the pre-
vailing political disposition TO exhibit. the
past management OF corporate affairs as n
scandal of knavish policy. From the
lofty plane OF our political life self-in-
terested observers, contemplating the
financial and business record of the las,
decade, see nothing IN II to approve and
only much to condemn without any ex-
tenuating allowance for the conditions
under which the record was made UP
and without conceding thai. what are to-
day termed crimes Of acknowledgements
should be more fairly and Justly de-
scribed Ms mistakes of greater or less
consequences
As II happens Il Ia possible to cite from
the held OF observation depressing num-
her OF unfortunate instances OF such CON
duct OF corporate activities as has lent
itself TO political castlCation. and the
wonder II that somehow people continue TO
persist as they do IN crediting corporate
values with any worth ut all Vet the
Pennsylvania Railroad. for example has
just reported as of June 30 last the largest
number OF stockholders which ii has ever
had on iis books, an Increase OF some
1000 within the year Perhaps when all
the dust of political commotion has
cleared away. rs IL must before long. Il
will be discovered that 90 much sweep
ing up OF financial and business dirt ha.
only revealed general conditions of n
most encouraging wholcsomeness and most
suspicious for the future of American
enterprise
II is worth while considering the New
Haven report with some particularly Mt
the moment because II has variety of
hearings which have not been sufficiently
discussed. Among other things the re-
port warmed over what T. W. Whitridge
npty called a stale scandal and served
Il hotly seasoned in order to make an
appeal 10 n public palate faded by too
much political sensation The findings
which the commission sanctioned were
couched In such violent phrasing OF de-
mandatory cpithst that they have already
begun 70 provoke n recoll OF public opinion.
Had tho report been written 10y Mr. Bran
deis IN collaboration with Mr. Folk Il
could not have seemed more peculiarly
designed to seek the vindcatlon OF the
Brdndcis crusadcs of recent years or TO
confer on Folk the benefit OF whatever
political capital could accrue from West
ern prejudice against Eastern finance.
Apparently the Interstate Commerce
commits sion, sitting neither as an admins
tr1pvc nor az "A judicial body but as a
prosecuting inqusition. assumed that the
New Haven management under the Mel
len presidency was actuated only by a
plundering purpose and yet the report
makes an astonishing failure TO locate the
loot which II assumed TO have been the
object OF New Haven policy. Moreover.
the groes injustice of the report appears
in the suppression OF those features OF
tho New Haven development that have
given to New England n transportation
service Of which II has no complaint to
make.
The real facts In tho New Haven case
are that the management made series
Of great blunders, from the standpoint of
public policy at least. but other men In
other parts of the country in differing
spheres OF activity were making much
the same kind OF blunders IN much me
same way at the same time. A notion
had got about that credit could be ex-
tended forever. that capital was an mex
haustlble supply and that public attitudes
toward corporate consolidation would
never change. How far wrong the New
Haven management was In the general
scope OF It's expensive schemes OF com
bination can only appear IN time ms the
properties acquired at stiff prices develop
with the growth OF New England. In
the meantime there is danger that tho
New Haven tragedy may be made TO
serve as memorable reminder OF how
far wrong politics can go in endeavoring
10 redress the mistakes OF a dead past
What can possibly be gained for the
hard hit New Haven security holders or
for New England by trying to compel the
complete dislnteRraton of a consolidat
that was effected At 80 great a cost? A
hint a. TO the right answer to this ques-
ton seems to be conveyed In tho indica-
tons that Now England opinion does not
countenance the Federal Attorney Gem
erals programme OF corporate disruption
and that the New Haven stockholders arc
back Of the directors IN the determination
OF tho board TO contest in the courts the
right OF the company TO retain the pos
sessions which cost II so much. or TO part
with them only on decently remunerative
terms.
In a larger sense the decision OF the
New Haven directors to defend their prop
erty may signify that we have come TO the
end OF the time OF squnshy surrender OF
property rights TO frenzied political ag-
gressions. II may signify that the con
stltution of peace Is not TO be a COMPACT
OF mushy concession TO the fantastic de-
mands OF n vote coaxing propaganda which
promises 10 raise the price OF everything
one has to sell while lowering the cost
OF everything one wants to buy by Grip
ping or destroying the organization OF
American enterprise because II IL vaguely
accused of Exploiting tho people for
profit"
Indeed there are other signs OF a now
fighting spirit in business. not the least
striking of which are the increasing bust
ness protests at Washington against the
new legislative experiments projected in
the business field That the protests are
warranted IL evidenced by tho bewildering
rapidly OF amendatory processes through
which the Admlnlstra TONS antitrust
measures, so-called, are passing every
week. This alone Ii a clear demonstra-