Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1915-09-09
BRIDGEPORT, o.

Except, perhaps, .fSA improvements
IN safety and sanitation 1.-The, labor
conditions of corporafSan controlled
Industries are subject to grave critic
ism and are a menace to the welfare
of the Nation.
In order to prevent the organiza-
ton OF employees for the improve
ment of working conditions, elaborate
systems Of espionage, are maintained
by the larger corporations which re-
fuse to deal with labor unions, and
employees suspected of union atfilia-
ton are discharged.
s@The domination by the men in
whose hands the final control of a
large part of American industry rests
Is not limited to their employees, but
is being rapidly extended to ecEtrol
the education and social service of
the Nation.
This control is being extended
largely through the creation of enorn.
GUS privately managed funds for in
definite purposes, hereinafter deisgpat
ed foundations, by the endowment of
colleges and universities, by the crea-
ton of funds for the pensioning of
teachers, by contributions to private
charities as well as through eontroll-
ing or influencing the public press"
The Rockefeller Foundations en-
trane into the field of Industrial rela-
tions, through the creation of a spe
cial division, it is declared, "con-
Stitutes menace to the national well
foT. No sxxyI, fo1x he n1vv
OF. Congress, but of the entire coun-
try, should be directed. Backed by
the $100, 100000 of the Rockefeller
Foundation, this movement has the
power to influence the entire country
in the determination of its most vital
policy"
Mr.. Rockefeller is charged with
planning to utilize literature which
was nkown to him at the time to be
untrue sud misleading in a so-called
Union educational campaign"
There is developing, says the re-
port, degree of control over the
teaching Of professors in our colleges
and universities, which constitutes a
most serious menace.
Urge Congress to Act.
Congress is urged to enact a statute
providing that all incorporated nom
profit making bodies, whose present
charters empower them to perform
more than single specific function
and whose funds exceed 500. 00O, 900,
shall be compelled to secure Federal
charter.
The charter, it is urged, should con-
tain provision limiting the funds, de-
finitely and exactly specifying the
powe providing rigid inspection Of
finance, providing complete publicity.
and providing that no line of work
not specifically mentioned in the ar
ticles of Incorporation shall be enter
ed upon without the unanimous con-
sent and approval of the Board OF
Trustees nor unless Congress Is d.
rectly informed of such intention.
i, Congress is further urged to make
provision for thorough investigation
of all endowed institutions both secu-
lar and religious, whose property
holdings or income exceeds a moder-
ate amount.
The third recome ndation touching
upon the work of foundations is that,
Governmental activity along the lines
of education and social service should
be increased as the only effective
means Of counteracting the influence
of the foundations as long as they
are permitted to exist.
The report says in full regarding
concentration of wealth:
"The evidence developed by the
hearings and investigations OF the
Commission is the basis for the follow
ing statements:
\. /. The control of manufacturing
mining and transportation industries
is to an increasing degree passing In
to the hands of great corporations
through stock ownership, and control
of credit is centralized in a compare
lively small number OF enormously
powerful financial institutions. These
financial institutions are in turn domi-
mated by a very small number of pow
erful financiers.
q. The final control of American
industry rests, therefore, in the hands
of small number of wealthy and
powerful financiers.
3. The concentration OF ownership
ana control Is greatest in the basic in
dustries upon which the welfare of the
country must finally rest.
4. With few exceptions each of the
great basic industries is dominated by
a single large corporation, and where
this is not true, the control OF the In
dustry through stock ownership is
supposedly independent corporations
and through credit is almost, if not
quite, as potent.
s. In such corporations, in spite OF
the large number of stockhold ers. the
control through actual stock owner.