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Uiority. The ex-presidcnt bases'hls" opinion on tho
theory that no'lino can be drawn between the nat
ural person and the corporation. While it is true
that some of the courts have confused this lino
it is, nevertheless, a very clear and distinct lino.
The natural person has natural and inalienable
rights while the corporation has only those rights
which are conferred upon it by law. Man was
created to carry out a Divine decree, the corpora
tion was created as a money making institution.
It is only fair that the natural persons in one stale
shall stand upon an equal footing with the natural
persons of another state, but there is neither rea
son nor logic in the position that a state, can
create corporate giants and then without property
controlling them demand that they be given all
tho rights and immunities of natural persons IN
ADDITION TO THE SPECIAL RIGHTS AND
PRIVILEGES CONFERRED BY LAW.
The whole object of an incorporation law is to
grant to the corporation certain rights and privi
leges which the individual does not enjoy; if the
corporation is to have these and then have all the
rights and immunities of tho natural person, the
man-made corporation will be placed on a higher
plane than the God-made man. If the insurance
companies begin a systematic crusade against
state control they will develop a sentiment in
favor of state insurance just as the railroad man
agers, by resisting state regulation, create a sen
timent In favor of government ownership. Mr.
Cleveland's position is both undignified and un
democratic. oooo
"THE PUBLIC'S" ANNIVERSARY
The Public, Chicago, edited by Louis F. Post,
has just entered upon the tenth year of its use
fulness. The Public is one of the very best
journals published in the interest of reforms that
appeal to the better elements of American citi
zenship. Mr. Post is one of the best informed
men in America on public questions, and his style
of writing is clear, forceful and concise. The Pub
lic has been doing a splendid work in educating
the people along higher lines, and The Commoner
wishes for it many added years of usefulness.
In announcing its new volume the Public says:
"While remembering that tolerance, sanity and pa
tience are conditions of progress, the Public will
not' forget that without liberty progress Is impos
sible and that 'eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty.'" - '- -
OOOO
IN TEXAS
The Houston Post usually a very well informed
paper, finds fault with Mr. Bryan's statement that
the value of the railroads should be ascertained
and finds insuperable difficulties in the way. And
yet Texas is one of the few states which has
solved tills problem, the railroad commission hav
ing ascertained the value of the railroads of Texas.
The Post says: "If it should be determined in
Texas that the railroads should earn sufficient
money to pay all operating expenses and four per
cent interest on the real value of the property, then
in all likelihood the commission would have to
make a substantial increase in existing rates."
According to the state railroad commission of
Texas, the railroads of that state made consid
erably more than four per cent on the actual
.value of the roads.
OOOO
JUST THAT LONG
The New York Evening Post, republican, asks:
"How long are the trusts to enjoy their present
license to pick our pockets?"
Just so long as the people keep in power a
party which derives its campaign funds from the
trusts.
OOOO
"REGULATION"
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat saysf "Colonel
Bryan will observe that it is federal regulation and
not government ownership that is to settle the
railroad question."
But the regulation that regulates will. not come
from a party whose campaigns are financed by
the railroad magnates.
OOOO
GRAFT
In Arkansas a former state senator is serving
a pentitentia'ry sentence and doing work with the
other convicts as a punishment for graft. How
ever, humiliating It may be to have a state official
in the chain gang it speaks well for democratic
Arkansas that she administers punishment to the
guilty without regard to position in society or
politics. Lenleppy iij more often shown to those
standing high (In public esteeni than to those who
are obscure, but,, jasa rule the; Jowly are more
deserving of gynjpattiy. Those ,w,ho are prominent
have usually ,ha'(l greater advantages, arid are
hedged about with' influences whjph strengthen
and support. Those, on the other hand, who arc
reared in tho slums or who live upon the ragged
The Commoner.
C(1fhJn n2CiC,ty nnd lmvo a struggle for existence
thSfSin S8 Vttlfl.ed ttgal,,8t temptation, if
thon ?w?0stwh0 sln aga,nst the "But then
tn fhnS6800 til? sovest punishment who add
Invo,t Lnin GS f110 l,?,trayal of Publl confidence
SSmn innf" ?e,r fcs. cty commissioner
2?h? f?ni ,traCtS' ity cou"-'ils barter away val
Sii?n c,,8C8,?na 8C,,0I trustees collect com
violate their oath of office to call for vigorous en-l
ofTK f Crlm,nal law and tbeSltivnSJ
miwii; - c l)micm whIcb win coraPel honesty, In
public servants. Arkansas is doing her part In the
S ZQTSnt ? H10 law aud er example ought
rin 2?,,owcd.; tJle m,n,sters and editors slumld
do their part In cultivating public opinion. .
OOOO
WASHINGTON LETTER
Washington, D. 0., April 23, 1007.
It is one thing to earn a dollar, sometimes a
hard thing. It is quite as material a thing to Hud
out what that dollar is going to buy. Today, ac
cording to the figures collated, it will buy almost
iSo?1" n?' aU,te' aS ""y-five cents would in
nSX-f ? V, commercial Agencies of Dun and
SS J ?i0ti make a Plnt o' studying the increased
attention to the enormous Increase In salary of the
heads of corporations, trusts and general public
. utility corporations. But on the point of the In
crease in the cost of living we find according to
"The price fixed for commodities at wholesale
December 1, 1000 was 40 per cent higher than on
uuiy l, lo'Jb.
It will be remembered that 180G was a lean
year for men who worked for wages. But lean
as it was, are there any following the same trade
who think their wages have been increased 40 per
cent since, as according to this wholly partisan
commercial agency, their living expenses have
been?
Bradstreet's tnbles show also an increase of
50 per cent over the prices of ten years ago. The
editor of Moody's Magazine, after a careful in
vestigation of wages and prices, concludes, that
the increase in the cost of living-has been 40 per
cent In ten years) and that wages have risen only
half ns much.
Is this prosperity? Is it prosperity to earn
possibly fifteen per cent more and to have to pav
out fifty per cent more for living.? Do these figures
justify the statement made long ago in an official
book issued by the republican national committee
that wages rose more than prices. They do not.
Wages rose for a time, now are stationary, and
in some instances are decreasing. Prices go up
and up. What! is this prosperity? Is it for tho
people, or the plutocracy?
The debated question of railroad regulation
versus railroad ownership by the people had a
new chapter added to it when Senator Cullom of
Illinois said, "If I could have my way and there
was a law to do it, I would put Harriman In ,the
penitentiary for his work In the Alton deal, 'and
keep him there long enough to make him pay the
full penalty for looting the road, and bringing
about conditions for which the bondholders will
have to suffer."
Thus a senator of the United States. This is
what Harriman Is reported to have said and I
think reported authoritatively: "If Senator Cul-
lom said that he could not have been sober."
It is late now to go over the Harriman record
in high finance. To tell the story of the way in
which he used the funds of the Equitable Assur
ance company to finance his deal would be 10
thrash over old straw. To recall again the per
fectly composed manner in which he said to the
Interstate commerce commission that he had
bonded a railroad that was never built, and sold
the bonds to a confiding public would simply be to
repeat a matter of common notoriety.
But when a senator of the United States de
clares with perfect frankness that the man who
does an action of that sort should be j?ut in the
penitentiary, that opinion should carry somo
weight.
Senator Cullom is not young either in -years, or
in public service. In years he has passed the
scriptural limit of three score and ten with a
good margin on the other side In public servipe
he has been a man of prominence locally from
18G5 to 1873 and since then has been a distin
guished figure nationally. That his views do not
agree with those of the democratic party does not
detract from the dignity of. his position. And that
a railroad manager and stock gambler should an
swer Senator Cullom's criticism of his fiction by
saying that the senator could not have been sober
indicates the growing insolence of the railroad
oligarchy.
mScfc,rry Tnft.lins never boon a candidate for
ofllce before tho people. His first office was an
f onT I? Ohio 'n 1881 when ho was VA
j ears old. He has held public office over slueo
2hie exception of four years betweon 1800
2!!.Yi. iSrJv, , was a curIos tact Uiat until Presl
nnfl. uey',wh08e antagonism to Foraker was
notorious, appointed him president of tho Philip
Si?? co,nn,,8sion, all of his public honors had been
SlW,.upo" ,l,m e,thor hy d,roct "PPolntment,
or tho Influence of Foraker, now his rival.
TT,iiS2l0Qre Ppos!dcnt Roosevelt's friends In tho
United States senate? Senator Lodge Is generally
S?,"8 the president's henchman. Spooiier,
Knox, Allison, Burrows, Carter, Dolliver, Gallln'.
ger, and Ileyburn and many others were In the
presidential retinue. When tho railway rate bill
was being considered how did these men vote on
the various proposed amendments to that mcas-
iUfi , wS, ny UloIr ctortH ttml votes that the
Bailey and Culberson amendments forbidding un
united Injunctions against the rate orders of the
interstate commerce commission were defeated.
By their efforts and votes Senator LaFolletlo's
throe proposals; first, to determine tho valuation
of the railroads as a basis of rale making; second,
to increase tho legal liabilities of railroads for In
juries to their employes; and third, to prevent a
judge having stock in and privileges from-railroads,
from Issuing an injunction against the
rate schedules of the commission, were ail killed.
During tho assassination of these measures tho
president practically stood by and saw the murder
committed. A word from him might have saved
these amendments. As propf of what the pros!
(lent could have done, had he been so Inclined,
take the history of. Senator LaFollette's railway
hours bill. This measure seemed destined to th'.
fate of the other proposals of Senator LaFollettc.
I he president's friends as usual were belligerent
Suddenly public pressure was brought to boar,
through the efforts of the railroad employes. The
administration wavered. A conference was ar
ranged betweon Ihc president and Senator LaFol
lettc. The word was given and tho president's'
friends allowed the bill, at Uic eleventh hour, to
become law. IC tills could be dofie why could not
tho other measures have been saved? A true radi
cal in the White House, with control over Lodge
Spooner, and Knox might have done much.
Conservatism? Who today is personally most
popular in the United States among the men In
public office? I say it with thorough understand
ing of what it means. -He Js the head of Uic
party which I Jn a small way oppose. There Is
no public official in all the land who is so popular
as Theodore Roosevelt.- And why? Because he is
ponservativo? Because he Is safe and sane? Be
cause He has the approval of the great financial
interests? Answer these questions for yourself.
It Is not necessary for me to answer them. I may
say that he has made tho public believe rightly or
wrongly that he stands for radicalism and so has
won popularity. As a matter of fact he stands
for a halfway position. But going even the brief
way that he has, ho is now in a position to domi
nate his party and to be idolized by a great num
ber of its voters.
The tariff question will purposely be made'an
Issue of the next national campaign. While every
reason for its rorision lias existed for some years
that exists nowr the republicans will hold' off the
question of tariff revision in the GOth congress
Just as they blocked it in the GOth congress, so
that they can go before the country In the next
campaign with the battlecry, "Let the tariff bo
revised by Its friends." Tariff revision is to be
purposely delayed for political purposes.
In the meantime it might be well to consider
some of the things our high tariff has accom
plished: A duty of 75 cents a ton on coal made possible
the Anthracite Coal Trust, with . its advanced
prices. .
The Boot and Shoe combine was materially
strengthened by a duty of 25 per cent on boota
and shoes.
The tariff on brooms was raised 40 per cent
and the prices were raised accordingly.
The duty on pearl buttons was raised nearly
-400 per cent, and the Button Trust has had ito
own way since.
The tariff on cartridges was increased 45 per
centNand since November, 1800, they have been
sold at prices nearly 100 per cent higher than in
188$. They are, however, sold to foreigners about
40 per cent cheaper than to Americans.
The Harrow and the Harvester Trusts both
sell to foreigners cheaper than to Americans, and" '
are both protected by high tariffs.
Prohibitive duties on white lead have made It
possible for the LeadCombine to sell abroad at
-n
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