Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1902)
7WW i- .s 4 V' i'l i- i Irt i The Commoner. 14 Vol. 2, No. 33. if, i' j The President and the Trusts r Providenco, It. I., Aug. 23. -In his address hero today President Rooso yelt spoke in part as follows: "Wo are passing through a period of great material prosperity and such a period is as sure as adversity itself to bring mutterings of discontent. At a timo when most men prosper some- what It always happens that a few men prosper greatly and it is as true now as it was when the tower of Siloam fell upon all who were under it, that good fortune does not como only to tho just, nor bad fortune only to tlio unjust. When tho weather Is good for crops it is also good for weeds. Moreover, not only do the wicked flourish when tho times aro such that most men flourish, hut what is worse, the spirit of envy and jeal ousy and hatred springs up in tho breasts of those who, though they may ho doing fairly well themselves, yet see others, who aro no more deserv ing, doing far hotter. "Wise laws and fearless and upright administration of tho laws can give tho opportunity for such prosperity as that wo see about us. But this is all that they can do. When tho con ditions have been created which make prosperity possible, then each individ ual man must achieve it for himself; by his own thrift, Intelligence, energy, industry and resolute purpose. . If when people wax fat thoy kick, as thoy have been prone to do since the days of Jeshurun, they will speedily de stroy their own prosperity. If they go into wild speculation and lose their heads, thoy have lost that which no legislation can supply, and tho busi ness world will suffer in consequence. If in a spirit of sullen envy they insist upon pulling down those who have profited most by the years of fatness, they will bury themselves in tho crash of tho common disaster. "It is difficult to make our material condition bettor by tho best laws, but it is easy enough by had laws to throw the whole nation into an abyss of mis ery. - "One of the dangers of the tre mendous industrial growth of the last generation has been tho very great in- crease in large private, and especially in large corporate fortunes. "We may like this or not, just as we pleaBo, but it is a fact, nevertheless, arid as far as we can see it is an inev itable result of tho working of various causes, prominent among which has hoen tho immense importance., steam and electricity have assumed in mod ern life. "It is not true that tho poor have grown poorer, but some of tho rich have grown so very much richer that Whore multitudes of men aro horded together in a limited space, the con trast strikes the onlooker as more vio lent than formerly. On the whole, our people earn more and live better than ever bofore, and tho progress of which wo are so proud could not have taken place &ad inot heen for tho great upbuilding of industrial centers, such as our commercial and manu facturing pities. But together with tho good hero has come a measure of ovil. -Life is not so simple as it was, and surely both for the individual and the. community the simple life Is nor ; mally the healthy life. There is not in -tho oltlos; the same sense of cqmmon . underlying brotherhood which there is , , still m country localities, and the lines ' of social cleavage aro far more clearly -"marked. , t "For" some of tho ovils -which have attended upon the crood nlmmrori . ,ii tions we can at present see no com plete remedy. , Much of the complaint against combinations is entirely unwarranted. Hinder present conditions it la- as nec essary to havo corporations in tho bus iness world, as it is to havo organiza tion among wage-workers. But we havo a right to ask in each case that they shall do good and not Jiarm. Ex actly as labor organizations, when managed intelligently and in a spirit of justice and fair play aro of great service, not only to wage-workers, but to tho whole community, as tho history of many labor organizations has conclusively shown, so wealth, not merely individual, but corporate, when used aright, is not merely a benefit to the community as a whole, but indis pensablo to tho upbuilding of the country tho conditions, which at the present tho country has grown not only to accept, but to demand as nor mal. This is so obvious that it seems trito even to state it, and yet if we are to judge from arguments advanced against, and attacks made upon, wealth as suchj it is a fact worth keeping In hand. "A great fortune, if not used aright, makes its possessor in a peculiar sense a menace to the community as a whole just as a great intellect does if it is unaccompanied by developed con science by character. But obviously, this no more affords for condemning wealth than it does for condemning in tellect. Every man of power by the fact of that power is capable of doing damage to his neighbors, but we can not afford to discourage the develop ment of such men merely because it is possible they may use their power to wrong ends. If we did so we should leave our history a blank, for we should have no great statesmen, sol diers or merchants, no great men of arts, of letters or of science. Doubt less on the average tho most useful man to his follow citizens is apt to he given what the psalmist prayed for, neither poverty nor riches, but the great captain of industry, the man of wealth, who alone or in combination with his fellows, drives through our great business enterprises, is a factor without which this country could not possibly maintain its present indus trial position in the world. Good, not harm, normally comes from the piling up of wealth through business enter prises. Probablv the most serious harm resulting to us, the people of moderate means, is when we harm our selves Dy letting tno dark and evil vices of envy and hatred toward our fellows eat into our natures "Still there is other harm of a more evident kind, and such harm it is our clear duty to try to eradicate if possi ble and in any event to minimize. The corporations containing some tendency to monopoly, which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts, are tho creatures of tho state, and the state not only has tho right to control them, but Is in duty bound to control them wherever the need for such con- trm ib Huown. mere is cieany a need of supervision need to exercise the jjuwui- ui iubuwuuu on me part or the representatives of the nuhlin. wTi Lover, as in our own country at the iiresent Time, Dusmess corporations become so very strong both for ben eficent work and for work that is not always beneficent. It is Idle to say that there is no need for such supervision. A- sufficient warrant for it Is to be found over and over again in any of the various ovils resulting from the present system, or rather lack of sys tem. - mTh?fe.is In our country a peculiar difficulty in the way of exercising such supervision and control because- of the peculiar vision 'of governmental pow er. When the Industrial conditions wor simple, Very little control wag needed and no trouble was caused by the. dpubt as to wliere it was lodged under thd constitution. Now the con ditions are complicated, and we find it difficult to frame national legislation which shall be adequate, while as a matter of practical experience state action hasproved entirely insufficient and in all human probability cannot or will not be made sufficient to meet the needs of the case. Some of our states havo laws laws which it would be well indeed to have enacted by the national legislature. But the wide difference tf these laws have tho un certainty of the power to enforce, which results in insufficient control. I believe that the nation must assume this power of control by legislation, and if it becomes evident that the con stitution will not permit needed legis lation, then by constitutional amend ment. "The immediate need in dealing with trusts is to place them under the real, not nominal, control of some sovereign, to which, as its creature, the trusts shall own allegiance, and in whose courts the sovereign's orders may with certainty be enforced. This Is not the case with the ordinary bo called 'trust' today, for the trust is a large state corporation, doing busi ness in other states also, and often with a tendency to monopoly. Such a trust is an artificial creature, not whol ly responsible to or controllable by any legislature, nor wholly subject to tho jurisdiction of any one court. Some governmental sovereign must be given full power over these artificial corporate beings. In my judgment this sovereign must be the national government When it has been given full power, then this full power can be used to control any evil influence, exactly as the government is now us ing the power conferred upon it, un der the Sherman anti-trust law. Even when tho full power has been con ferred it would be highly undesirable to attempt too much or to begin by stringent legislation. Tho mechanism of modern business is as delicate and complicated as it is vast, and nothing would be more productive of evil to all of us, and especially to those least well off in this world's goods, than ignorant meddling with this mechan ism, and above all, if the meddling was done in a spirit of class or sec tional rancor. It is desirable that this power should bo possessed by the nation, but it is quite as desirable that the power should be exercised with moderation and self-restraint. The first exercise of that power should be the securing of publicity among all great corporations doing an interstate business. The publicity, though non inquisitorial, should be real and thor ough as to all Important facts with which the public has concern." The Humor of It. ,? iSx uSSested by the Springfield (Mass.) Republican that a barbed wire fence be built along the international boundary line In Northern Montana to aid the customs officers in patrolinc the border and enforcing the tariff laws. As it is now, cattle particularly cause trouble. They are worth about ?LP??cei? mSQ on thIs Bido of the ?$: h Sef' and seem to know it, for it is said they have a wav of drifting in this direction when human beings are not visible to tho eye of guardians against smuggling. But it is found that if the fence is built at the joint exponse of tho two govern ments it will be much cheaper to have Canaan furnish the wire, even thouch it comes from the states This 1 I be cause the steel trusts are selling wire to outside countries at lower pE A aJw? CharPd tQ homQ consumers A fenco constructed-on those terms would be a fine illustration of h?w tho trusts aro working to undo tho home market while tho government Is engaged in fencing it in. San Fran cisco Star. Congressional Appropriations. Thomas P. Cleaves and James C Courts, chief clerks respectively of the committees on appropriations of tho senate and house, have prepared the Tolumo containing statements of. ap propriations, new offices, etc., as re quired by law, which directs that theso figures be compiled and published at the close of each session of congress. The grand total as shown by theso summaries Js $800,624,496.55, detailed by bills as follows: Agricultural ... $ 5,28,960.00 Army 91,730,136.41 .Diplomatic ., 1,957,925.69 Dist. of Columbia...,.,"'.. " 8,544,469.97 Fortifications .......... 7,298,955.00 Indian 8,986,028.10 Legislative 25,396,681.50 Military academy 2,627,324.42 Naval 78,856,363.13 Pension 139,842,230.00 Postofflce 138,416,598.75 River and harbor'...-.... 26,771,442.00 Sundry civil :'.... - 60,163,359.13 Deficiencies ,... .28,050,007.32 Miscellaneous v. 2,772,795.13 Isthmian canal act 50,130,000.00 Permanent appro.: 123,921,220.00 Total $800,624,496.55 In addition to the specific appro priations made, contracts aro author ized to be entered into for certain public works requiring future appro priations by congress in the aggregato sum of $262,711,465. These contracts Include $21,069,500 for additional ships for tho navy and for permanent im provements of the increased facilities at certain naYy yards; $15,943,850 for additions to old public buildings and the construction" of new public build ings in various cities of the country; $33,336,180 for improvement, of river and-harbors; $3,500,000 for reconstruc tion of old and erection of new build ings at the military academy at West Point, and $180,000,000 for the con struction of an isthmian canal. A comparison of the total appropria tions at the' last session of congress with these of the preceding or short session of the Fifty-sixth congress for 1903 shows an increase of $70,285, 920.56. In this amount are included in creased appropriations for the depart ment of agriculture, $626,540; for the diplomatic, District of Columbia, legis lative, executive and judicial and na val service, $1,706,981.74; for the mili tary academy $1,854,670:74; for the postal service, $14,633,910; for tho whole of the river and harbor act, none having been passed at the pre ceding session, $26,771,442; for defic iencies, $12,132,560.38, and for the isth mian canal, $50,130,000. On .the other hand there appear reductions of $24, 003,912.69 for the army, $65,056 for fortifications, $761,442.99 for the Ind ian service, $5,403,000 under require ments for pensions, $1,632,549.08 by tho sundry civil act, $5,267,223.54 by mis cellaneous acts, and $437,000 under per manent appropriations which cover in terest on tho public debt, making a net increase as stated of $70,285,920.56. Washington Correspondence Chicago Record-Herald. Oak and Squash. The Chicago Inter-Ocean says that when tho late President Barrows of Oberlin college was asked by a stu dent if he could not take less than tho regular four years' course Dr. Bar- t rows looked tho applicant over thoughtfully and replied: "Why, certainly, my lad. A short course- if you like, but my advice to you is to take the longest course pos sible. The length of time you wish to devote to study rests with you en tirely, and should depend on what you intend to become. Just remembor that when God wants to make an oak ho takes a liundrod years, but when ho wants a squash ho takes six months. ..Mi HHHfun J- r -Vj-,! M)?UM ' -J--,fc ', . I V ir'