The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-06-02

the state thai the Individual begins to
feel capital as an oppressor. Our
American demand for equality Of op-
portunity is a const..nt militant check
upon capita! becoming a thing to be
feared. out of fear we sometimes even
20 TOO far and stifle the reproductive
use Of capital by crushing the initia-
tive that makes for its creation.
Some discussion of the legal limita-
lions we have placed upon economic
domination is given later on, but 1t Is
desirable to mention here certain po-
tent forces In our economic life that
are themselves providing their own
correction to domination.
The domination by arbitrary individ-
ual ownership is disappearing because
the works of today are steadily grow
ing more and more beyond the re-
sources of any one individual. and
steadily taxation will reduce relatively
excessive individual accumulations.
The number of persons in partnership
through division of ownership among
many stockholders 8 steadily increas-
ing-thus 100000 to 100000 partners in
a single concern are not uncommon.
The overwhelmingly largest portion of
our mobile capital Is that of our
banks, insurance companies, building
and loan associations, and the vast ma.
jority of all this is the aggregated
snail savings Of our people. Thus
large capital Is steadily becoming more
aud more a mobilization of the savings
Il - --.zI t-lJ1~- ~ .-A.r -
themselves-and its administration be.
comes at once more sensitive TO the
moral opinions of the people in order
to attract their support. The directors
and managers OF large concerns. them
elves employees of these great groups
IF individual stockholders, or policy
holders, reflect a spirit of community
responsibility.
Large masses of capital can only
find their market for service or produc-
ton to great numbers of the same
kind Of people that they employ and
they must, therefore, maintain conf
aence in their public responsibilities III
order to retain their customers. In
tines when the products of manufac-
ture were mostly luxuries to the aver
= of the people, the condition Of
their employees was of nc such inter
est to their customers as when they
later to employees in general. OF
this latter. no greater proofs need ex-
ist than the efforts Of many large con-
Germs directly dependent upon public
good will to restrain prices in scarcity
aud tho x-or- uaDa,.al sHacfra 20 ,-sof3
a Measure of service with the goods
sold. Another phase of this same de-
velopment in administration of capital
Is the growth of a sort of institutional
sense in many large business enter
prises. The encouragement of solidar-
ity in all grades of their employees in
the common service and common sue
cess, the sense of mutually with the
prosperity of the community are both
vital developments in indiyidualism.
There has been in the last thirty
years an extraordinary growth of or
CARNATIONS for advancement Of ideas
in the community for mutual co-opera-
ton and economic o~bjectives-the
chambers Of commerce, trade associa-
iOiio obO dAiiOAAof Odiih0I y 1ai AAAIl
propaganda associations, and what not.
These are indeed variable mixtures of
altruism and self-interest. Neverthe-
less in these groups the individual finds
an opportunity for self-exnression and
participation In the NEEDING of ideas, a
field for training and the stepping
stones for leadership.
The number of leaders in local and
national life whose opportunity to
service and leadership came through
these associations has become now of
more Importance than those through
the direct lines of political and reli-
gious organization.
At times these groups come into
sharp conflict and often enough charge
each other with crimes against public
interest. They do contain faults; If
they develop into warning interests, If
they dominate legislators and intimi-
date public officials, if they are to be a
new setting of tyranny, then they will
destroy the foundation of individual
ism. Our government will her drift
! into the hands of timorous mediocre
ties dominated by groups until We
shall become a syndicalist nation on a
gigantic scale. On the other hand,
each group is a realization of greater
mutually of interest, each contains
some element of public service and
each is a school of public responsible
ty. In the main, the same forces that
permeate the nation at large eventually
permeate these groups. The sense of
service, a growing of RESPONSE
bility, and the sense Of constructive
recall in them their responsibilities as
well as their privileges. In the end, no
group can dominate the nation and a
few successes in imposing the will of
any group is its sure death warrant.
Today business organization is NOV
ing strongly toward cooperation. There
are in the cooperative great hopes that
we can ever gain In individuality,
equality of opportunity, and an en-
larged field for initiative. and at the
same time reduce many of the great
wastes of o~yer-reckless competition In
production and distribution. Those
who either congratulate themselves or
those who fear that cooperation is an
advance toward socialism need neither
rejoice or worry. Cooperation in its
current economic sense represents the
initiative of ~self-interest blended with
a of service, for nobody belongs
to a cooperative who is not striving