its being radical, when the abuse has become flagrant and no other
remedy appears possible. This was the case with the taxation of local
franchises in this State. For years most of these franchises escaped
paying their proper share of the public burdens. The last Legislature
placed on the statute book a law requiring them to be treated as
real estate for the purposes of taxation, the tax to be assessed and
collected by the State Assessors for the benefit of the localities
concerned. This marks an immense stride in advance. Of course at first
serious difficulties are sure to arise in enforcing it. The means for
carrying it into effect are very inadequate. There may be delay before
we get from it the substantial additions to the revenue which will
finally accrue, and there may be disappointment to the enthusiasts
who are so apt to hope too much from such legislation. But it will
undoubtedly add largely to the public revenues as soon as it is fairly
in operation, and the amount thus added will increase steadily year
by year. The principle which this law establishes has come to stay.
There will doubtless have to be additional legislation from time
to time to perfect the system as its shortcomings are made evident
in actual practice. But the corporations owning valuable public
franchises must pay their full and proper share of the public burdens.
The franchise tax law is framed with the intent of securing exact and
equal justice, no more and no less. It is not in any way intended as a
means for persecuting or oppressing corporations. It is not intended
to cut down legitimate dividends; still less to cut down wages or
to prevent a just return for the far-sighted business skill of some
captain of industry who has been able to establish a public service
greatly to the advantage of the localities concerned, where before his
time men of less business capacity had failed. But it is intended that
property which derives its value from the grant of a privilege by the
public, shall be taxed proportionately to the value of the privilege
granted. In enforcing this law, much tact, patience, resolution and
judgment will be needed. All these qualities the State Board of Tax
Commissioners have thus far shown. Their salaries are altogether
inadequate, for the new law has immensely increased not only their
responsibilities, but their work. They should be given not only the
needed increase for themselves, but also an appropriation for an
additional number of clerks and experts.
During the year 1899 not a single corporation has received at the
hands of the State of New York one privilege of any kind, sort or
description, by law or otherwise, to which it was not entitled, and
which was not in the public interest; nor has corporate influence
availed against any measure which was in the public interest. At
certain times, and in certain places, corporations have undoubtedly
exerted a corrupting influence in political life; but in this State
for this year it is absolutely true, as shown by the history of every
measure that has come before the Legislature from the franchise tax
down, that no corporate influence has been able to prevail against the
interests of the public.
It has become more and more evident of late years that the State
will have to act in its collective capacity as regards certain
subjects which we have been accustomed to treat as matters affecting
the private citizen only, and that furthermore, it must exercise an
increasing and more rigorous control over other matters which it is
not desirable that it should directly manage. It is neither possible
nor desirable to lay down a general hard and fast rule as to what
this control should be in all cases. There is no possible reason in
pure logic why a city, for instance, should supply its inhabitants
with water, and allow private companies to supply them with gas, any
more than there is why the general government should take charge of
the delivery of letters but not of telegrams. On the other hand, pure
logic has a very restricted application to actual social and civic
life, and there is no possible reason for changing from one system
to the other simply because the change would make our political
system in theory more symmetrical. Obviously it is undesirable that
the government should do anything that private individuals could
do with better results to the community. Everything that tends to
deaden individual initiative is to be avoided, and unless in a given
case there is some very evident gain which will flow from State or
municipal ownership, it should not be adopted. On the other hand,
when private ownership entails grave abuses, and where the work is
of a kind that can be performed with efficiency by the State or
municipality acting in its collective capacity, no theory or tradition
should interfere with our making the change. There is grave danger
in attempting to establish invariable rules; indeed it may be that
each case will have to be determined upon its own merits. In one
instance a private corporation may be able to do the work best. In
another the State or city may do it best. In yet a third, it may be
to the advantage of everybody to give free scope to the power of some
individual captain of industry.
On one point there must be no step backward. There is a consensus of
opinion that New York must own its own water supply. Any legislation
permitting private ownership should be annulled.
Nothing needs closer attention, nothing deserves to be treated with
more courage, caution and sanity, than the relations of the State to
corporate wealth, and indeed to vast individual wealth. For almost
every gain there is a penalty, and the great strides in the industrial
upbuilding of the country, which have on the whole been attended
with marked benefit, have also been attended by no little evil.
Great fortunes are usually made under very complex conditions both
of effort and of surrounding, and the mere fact of the complexity
makes it difficult to deal with the new conditions thus created. The
contrast offered in a highly specialized industrial community between
the very rich and the very poor is exceedingly distressing, and while
under normal conditions the acquirement of wealth by an individual is
necessarily of great incidental benefit to the community as a whole,
yet this is by no means always the case. In our great cities there is
plainly in evidence much wealth contrasted with much poverty, and some
of the wealth has been acquired, or is used, in a manner for which
there is no moral justification.
A profound political and social thinker has recently written: “Wealth
which is expended in multiplying and elaborating real comforts, or
even in pleasures which produce enjoyment at all proportionate to
their cost, will never excite serious indignation. It is the colossal
waste of the means of human happiness in the most selfish and most
vulgar forms of social advertisement and competition that gives a
force to passions which menace the whole future of our civilization.”
But in continuance this writer points out that the only effectual
check lies in the law of public opinion. Any attempt to interfere by
statute in moral questions of this kind, by fettering the freedom of
individual action, would be injurious to a degree far greater than
is the evil aimed at. Probably the large majority of the fortunes
that now exist in this country have been amassed, not by injuring
mankind, but as an incident to the conferring of great benefits on the
community—whatever the conscious purpose of those amassing them may
have been. The occasional wrongs committed or injuries endured are
on the whole far outweighed by the mass of good which has resulted.
The true questions to be asked are: Has any given individual been
injured by the acquisition of wealth by any man? Were the rights of
that individual, if they have been violated, insufficiently protected
by law? If so, these rights, and all similar rights, ought to be
guaranteed by additional legislation. The point to be aimed at is the
protection of the individual against wrong, not the attempt to limit
and hamper the acquisition and output of wealth.
It is almost equally dangerous either to blink evils and refuse to
acknowledge their existence or to strike at them in a spirit of
ignorant revenge, thereby doing far more harm than is remedied. The
need can be met only by careful study of conditions, and by action
which, while taken boldly and without hesitation, is neither heedless
nor reckless. It is well to remember on the one hand that the adoption
of what is reasonable in the demands of reformers is the surest way to
prevent the adoption of what is unreasonable; and on the other hand
that many of the worst and most dangerous laws which have been put
upon the statute books have been put there by zealous reformers with
excellent intentions.
This problem has a hundred phases. The relation of the capitalist and
the wage-worker makes one; the proper attitude of the State toward
extreme poverty another; the proper attitude of the State toward
the questions of the ownership and running of so-called “public
utilities,” a third. But among all these phases, the one which at this
time has the greatest prominence is the question of what are commonly
termed “trusts,” meaning by the name those vast combinations of
capital, usually flourishing by virtue of some monopolistic element,
which have become so startlingly common a feature in the industrial
revolution which has progressed so rapidly during recent years.
Every new feature of this industrial revolution produces hardship
because in its later stages it has been literally a revolution
instead of an evolution. The new inventions and discoveries and the
new methods of taking advantage of the business facilities afforded
by the extraordinary development of our material civilization have
caused the changes to proceed with such marvelous rapidity, that at
each stage some body of workers finds itself unable to accommodate
itself to the new conditions with sufficient speed to escape
hardship. In the end the accommodation of the class takes place; at
times too late for the well-being of many individuals. The change
which would be unaccompanied by hardship if it came slowly, may
be fraught with severe suffering if it comes too fast, even when
it is in the end beneficial. Occasionally, moreover, the change
is positively deleterious, and very often, even when it is on the
whole beneficial, it has features which are the reverse. In some
cases, while recognizing the evil, it is impossible with our present
knowledge to discover any remedy. In others, a remedy can be applied,
but as yet only at a cost that would make it worse than the trouble
itself. In yet others it is possible, by acting with wisdom, coolness
and fearlessness, to apply a remedy which will wholly or in great
part remove the evil while leaving the good behind. We do not wish to
discourage enterprise. We do not desire to destroy corporations; we do
desire to put them fully at the service of the State and the people.
The machinery of modern business is so vast and complicated that great
caution must be exercised in introducing radical changes for fear
the unforeseen effects may take the shape of widespread disaster.
Moreover, much that is complained about is not really the abuse so
much as the inevitable development of our modern industrial life.
We have moved far away from the old simple days when each community
transacted almost all its work for itself and relied upon outsiders
for but a fraction of the necessaries, and for not a very large
portion even of the luxuries, of life. Very many of the anti-trust
laws which have made their appearance on the statute books of recent
years have been almost or absolutely ineffective because they have
blinked the all-important fact that much of what they thought to do
away with was incidental to modern industrial conditions, and could
not be eliminated unless we were willing to turn back the wheels of
modern progress by also eliminating the forces which had brought
about these industrial conditions. Not only trusts, but the immense
importance of machinery, the congestion of city life, the capacity
to make large fortunes by speculative enterprises, and many other
features of modern existence could be thoroughly changed by doing away
with steam and electricity; but the most ardent denouncer of trusts
would hesitate to advocate so drastic a remedy. What remains for us
to do, as practical men, is to look the conditions squarely in the
face and not to permit the emotional side of the question, which has
its proper place, to blind us to the fact that there are other sides.
We must set about finding out what the real abuses are, with their
causes, and to what extent remedies can be applied.
That abuses exist, and that they are of a very grave character, it
is worse than idle to deny. Just so long as in the business world
unscrupulous cunning is allowed the free rein which, thanks to
the growth of humanity during the past centuries, we now deny to
unscrupulous physical force, then just so long there will be a field
for the best effort of every honest social and civic reformer who
is capable of feeling an impulse of generous indignation and who is
far-sighted enough to appreciate where the real danger to the country
lies. The effects are bad enough when the unscrupulous individual
works by himself. They are much worse when he works in conjunction
with his fellows through a giant corporation or trust. Law is largely
crystallized custom, largely a mass of remedies which have been slowly
evolved to meet the wrongs with which humanity has become thoroughly
familiar. In a simple society only simple forms of wrong can be
committed. There is neither the ability nor the opportunity to inflict
others. A primitive people provides for the punishment of theft,
assault and murder, because the conditions of the existing society
allow the development of thieves and murderers and the commission
of deeds of violence; but it does not provide for the punishment of
forgery because there is nothing to forge, and therefore, no forgers.
The gradual growth of humanitarian sentiment, often unconscious or but
semi-conscious, combined with other causes, step by step emancipated
the serf from bodily subjection to his over-lord; he was then
protected in his freedom by statute; but when he became a factory hand
the conditions were new and there were no laws which prevented the
use of unguarded machinery in the factories, or the abuses of child
labor, forced upon the conscientious employers by the unscrupulous
until legislation put them on an equality. When new evils appear there
is always at first difficulty in finding the proper remedy; and as the
evils grow more complex, the remedies become increasingly difficult
of application. There is no use whatever in seeking to apply a remedy
blindly; yet this is just what has been done in reference to trusts.
Much of the legislation not only proposed but enacted against trusts
is not one whit more intelligent than the mediæval bull against the
comet, and has not been one particle more effective. Yet there can and
must be courageous and effective remedial legislation.
To say that the present system of haphazard license and lack of
supervision and regulation, is the best possible, is absurd. The
men who endeavor to prevent the remedying of real abuses, not only
show callous disregard for the suffering of others, but also weaken
those who are anxious to prevent the adoption of indiscriminate
would-be remedies which would subvert our whole industrial fabric.
The chicanery and the dishonest, even though not technically illegal,
methods through which some great fortunes have been made, are scandals
to our civilization. The man who by swindling or wrongdoing acquires
great wealth for himself at the expense of his fellow, stands as low
morally as any predatory mediæval nobleman and is a more dangerous
member of society. Any law, and any method of construing the law which
will enable the community to punish him, either by taking away his
wealth or by imprisonment, should be welcomed. Of course, such laws
are even more needed in dealing with great corporations or trusts
than with individuals. They are needed quite as much for the sake of
honest corporations as for the sake of the public. The corporation
that manages its affairs honestly has a right to demand protection
against the dishonest corporation. We do not wish to put any burden on
honest corporations. Neither do we wish to put an unnecessary burden
of responsibility on enterprising men for acts which are immaterial;
they should be relieved from such burdens, but held to a rigid
financial accountability for acts that mislead the upright investor or
stockholder, or defraud the public.
The first essential is knowledge of the facts, publicity. Much can be
done at once by amendment of the corporation laws so as to provide for
such publicity as will not work injustice as between business rivals.
The chief abuses alleged to arise from trusts are probably the
following: Misrepresentation or concealment regarding material facts
connected with the organization of an enterprise; the evils connected
with unscrupulous promotion; overcapitalization; unfair competition,
resulting in the crushing out of competitors who themselves do not
act improperly; raising of prices above fair competitive rates; the
wielding of increased power over the wage-earners. Of course none of
these abuses may exist in a particular trust, but in many trusts, as
well as in many corporations not ordinarily called trusts, one or more
of them are evident. Some of these evils could be partially remedied
by a modification of our corporation laws; here we can safely go along
the lines of the more conservative New England States, and probably
not a little farther. Such laws will themselves provide the needed
publicity, and the needed circumstantiality of statement. We should
know authoritatively whether stock represents actual value of plants,
or whether it represents brands or good will; or if not, what it does
represent, if anything. It is desirable to know how much was actually
bought, how much was issued free; and to whom; and, if possible,
for what reason. In the first place, this would be invaluable in
preventing harm being done as among the stockholders, for many of
the grossest wrongs that are perpetrated are those of promoters and
organizers at the expense of the general public who are invited to
take shares in business organizations. In the next place, this would
enable us to see just what the public have a right to expect in the
way of service and taxation. There is no reason whatever for refusing
to tax a corporation because by its own acts it has created a burden
of charges under which it staggers. The extravagant man who builds a
needlessly large house nevertheless pays taxes on the house; and the
corporation which has to pay great sums of interest owing to juggling
transactions in the issue of stocks and bonds has just as little right
to consideration. But very great hardship may result to innocent
purchasers; and publicity by lessening the possibility of this would
also serve the purpose of the State.
Where a trust becomes a monopoly the State has an immediate right to
interfere. Care should be taken not to stifle enterprise or disclose
any facts of a business that are essentially private; but the State
for the protection of the public should exercise the right to inspect,
to examine thoroughly all the workings of great corporations just
as is now done with banks; and wherever the interests of the public
demand it, it should publish the results of its examination. Then, if
there are inordinate profits, competition or public sentiment will
give the public the benefit in lowered prices; and if not, the power
of taxation remains. It is therefore evident that publicity is the one
sure and adequate remedy which we can now invoke. There may be other
remedies, but what these others are we can only find out by publicity,
as the result of investigation. The first requisite is knowledge, full
and complete.
* * * * *
FIRST ADMINISTRATION
INDEX
FIRST ADMINISTRATION
INDEX
A
Achievement, cost of, 92
Adams, John Quincy, President, 12, 87, 745
quoted, 755
William, Rev., 45
Administration, qualities needed for, 352
requirements for a good, 5
Admiral of the Navy, 631
Agencies, Indian, reduction of, 595
Aggression by United States, no, 624
Agitation, ignorant, dangers of, 140
Agitators assist their own enemies, 541
Agricultural Association, New York State, 466
experiment stations, 128
prosperity, 251
questions, 438
Agriculture, Alaskan, 424
competition in, 563
Department of, 127, 249, 303, 305, 440, 557, 559, 681, 684
mining and, 437
work of, 303, 304, 557
work in, great, 557
Aguinaldian oligarchy, 65
Aguinaldo, Emilio, 317
Alabama, 511, 517
Alaska, 204, 243, 326, 328, 338, 393, 421, 638-639, 677-678
agriculture in, 424
boundaries of, 664-667
cable to, 678
coal-land laws in, 677
Congressional Committee in, 639
Delegate from, 639
Delegate from, a, 423
development of, 424-425, 677
Farming lands in, 677
fisheries in, 424, 677
Fisheries Commission in, 678
forests of, 638, 677
future of, 422, 428
gateway to, 428
hatcheries, salmon, 678
importance of, great, 426
Indians in, 678
interest in, 428
land laws of, 638, 677
land patents in, 678
laws on, 423, 638
light-houses in, 678
lumbering in, 424
mineral wealth of, 677
mines of, 424
mining interests in, 665
population of, future, 428
provisional boundary of, 665
purchase of, 422
railroads in, 678
resources of, 429, 638
revenue questions in, 665
roads and trails in, 678
salmon industry in, 424, 638, 678
settlers in, 425
stock-raising in, 677
transportation in, 425
Tribunal, appropriation for, 667
Alaskan Boundary Convention, 665
Boundary Tribunal, 665-666
Treaty, 1867, 664
Albany, New York, 758, 760, 770
Albuquerque, N. M., 368
Alcibiades, galleys of, the, 579
Alfalfa, cultivation of, 305
Alleghany Mountains, 202, 243, 338, 425, 453
Allotment Act, General, 594
Alma Mater, debt to one’s, 458
Alverstone, Lord, 665
America, business position of, 540
debt of, to soldiers, 14
debt of, to Virginia, 453
destiny of, 220
for all Americans, 18
future of, 186, 360, 471
glorious past of, 330
headship of, 297
importance of, growing, 86, 268
mercantile growth of, 393
not aggressive, 578
pre-eminence of, 213, 239
prosperity conditions in, 577
race strains in, 450
true ideals of, 380
united, proofs of, 19
unity of interests in, 373
American, the average, 157, 358, 472
blend of races, an, 450
character of average, 297
creed of the, 607
duty of each, 502
educational advantages, 406
fighting edge of, 487
Federation of Labor, 521
good, the, 136
government, genius of, 430, 434
heritage of valor, 452
humorist, an, quoted, 496
industries, market for, 297
influence, growth of, 395
Nation, founding of, 345
no physical defect in, 510
officer, typical, 589
primacy, 257
Republic, success of the, 287
seamen, 463
shipping, superiority of, 554
ships, need of, 554
spirit, 200, 487-488
steamship line, contract with, 656
true, ideals of the, 409
typical, McKinley a, 398
typical virtues of an, 398
Revolution, Sons of the, 36-39
Americanism, example of, 166
genuine, 124
meaning of, 38
Americans, union of, 168
Amnesty in Philippines, 96
Amusement, true ideal of, 453
Anarchists, Congress and, 535
dangerous criminals, 533
defenders of, 530
exclusion of, 549
Federal Courts and, 535
immigration of, 535
murderers and, 534
protected by law, 536
suppression of, 534
Anarchy, arguments for, foolish, 530
crime against humanity, 535
danger of, in Philippines, 569
despotism and, 534
encouraged by lynching, 527
forerunner of tyranny, 524
freedom and, 529-530
governmental, 17
mob violence a form of, 523
not social discontent, 533
triumph of, 534
war against, 17
Animosity, class and sectional, 619
Annapolis, Md., 38, 120, 412, 633
Naval Academy at, 581
Antagonism to industrial conditions, 538
Anthracite on the free list, 296, 617
Antietam, Md., 482
battle of, 482-488
battlefield of, 507
Antilles, Queen of the, 567
Anti-Rebate Law, 280
Anti-Trust Laws, 322, 649
Anti-Trust Laws, actions under, 283
appropriations for, 612, 660
enforcements of, 282, 284, 612
funds for enforcing, 280
ineffective, 781, 784
(See also Trusts, Corporations, Combinations, etc.)
Antung, China, 674
Appalachian Mountains, 255
Appointments, Civil Service, 680
fixed policy in, 518
merit system in, 591, 644
negro, defended, 516
negro, in South, 516
negro, fewness of, 512
policy in making, 514, 518
whites and negroes in, 511-512
Appomattox, battle of, 486
Appropriation Act (Feb. 25, 1903), 660
Appropriations, Anti-Trust Law, 612, 660
economy in, 654
fraud, 660-662
Arbitration, growth of, 662
international, triumph of, 669
International, Union, 672, 673
international, union for, 672
labor troubles and, 308
peace and, 622-623
The Hague Court of, 669
Architecture of the White House, 644
Arctic Brotherhood, the, 421
Arid lands, reclamation of, 679, 682
reservoirs in, 561
surveys in, 682
Western, 438
Arizona, 158, 362, 369
irrigation in, 370
land-reclamation in, 682
Arlington, D. C., 40, 56
Cemetery, 40
soldiers’ monument at, 53
Armaments, object of, 266
Armies as fighting machines, 492