The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-08-26

powers, providing rigid inspection OF
finance, providing complete publicity
and providing that no line of work not
specially mentioned in the articles OF
incorporation shall be entered upon
without the unanimous consent and
approval of the board of trustees nor
unless Congress is directly Informed
of such intention.
Congress Is further urged to make
provision for a thorough investigation
of all endowed institutions, both Sec
ular and religious, whose property
holdings or income exceeds a moder.
ate amount
Urges Federal Activity.
The third recommendation 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 investigation of the com
mission is the basis for the following
statements:
1. The control of manufacturing,
mining and transportation industries
is to an increasing degree passing
into the hands of great corporations
through stock ownership, and control
of credit is centralized in a compare
lively small number of normously
powerful financial institutions. These
financial institutions are in turn dom
mated by very small number of
powerful financiers.
2 The fnanl control of American
industry rests, therefore, in the hands
of a small number Of wealthy and
powerful financiers.
3. The concentration of ownership
and control is greatest in the basic
industries upon which the welfare of
the country must finally rest.
Points Out Menace.
| A. With few exceptions each of the
great basic industries is dominated by
| single large corporation, and where
this is not true, the control OF the in,
dustry through stock ownership in
supposedly independent corporations
and through credit is almost, II not
quite. as potent.
s. In such corporations, in spite OF
the large number Of stockholders, the
| control through actual stock owner
ship rests with a very small number
of persons. For example, in the Unit
ed States Steel Corporation, which
had in 1911. approximately 100000
shareholders, Is per cent of the stock
| holders held 81 per cent of the stock
while the final control rested with a
single private banking house.
Similarly in the American Tobacco
| company. before the dissolution. 1C
stockholders owned 60 per cent OF
| the stock.
| 6. Almost without exception the EN-
ployees of the large corporations are
unorganized, as a result of the active
and aggressive "nonunion' policy Of
the corporation arrangements.
Control Of Colleges.
| Apart from these foundations there
| is developing a degree of control over
the teachings of professors in our col
leges and universities which consti
| tutes most serious menace. In June
of this year two professors, known
throughout their professions as men
Of great talent and high character
were dropped from the positions they
| had occupied and no valid reason fol
/ such action was made public. Both
| were witnesses before the commits
| sion, and made statements based upor
their own expert knowledge and ex
perience which were given wide pub
licity. One was professor of law II
a state university, who had acted al
counsel for the strikers in Colorado
the other a professor of economics
who had not only been active in fight:
in behalf of child labor legislation ant
other progressive measures but hae
recently published a work comparing
the income paid for property owner
ship with the income paid for al
| classes of service
In the case of the state universit,
we know that the coal operators il
conjunction with other business inter
ests had gained the ascendancy an,
exercised a great degree Of control ov
err the former governor OF the state
that the coal operators were bitterl,
opposed to the professor in question
and that the dismissal of the professo
had been publicly urged by the opel
ators upon numerous occasions, an,
we have the uncontroverted state
ment of the professor that he ha,
been warned that If he testified bef6r