5^4
THE GREEN BAG
tunities for improvement and advance ment were enjoyed by all. The food supply had become more widely diversified. The houses, apartments, or tenements in which people lived on the average improved and largely so. Thus it happened that nearly all not only realized that the country was making tremendous strides in material development, but also that each individual had some part in it. They knew, at least most of them did, that very large fortunes were being realized by some individuals — fortunes more colossal than had been accu mulated during a like period at any other time in the world's history. However, they were not envious, because the majority supposed them to have been honestly earned. It had been no part of American spirit or the American education to envy those who had been the more successful. At a time when our prosperity seemed greatest and our enjoyment of the material things of life was most general, suddenly the righteous wrath of the people became stirred, and justly stirred, by the unwel come discovery that at least some of the large fortunes had not been fairly gained. Revelation followed revelation in quick succession of transactions in the domain of high finance, by which a few had been en abled to add to their store at the expense of the many. The occasion thus presented called for a careful study of the situation by those engaged in state-craft. Many there were, doubtless, who attempted to perform this duty. Their purpose was to ascertain how wrongdoing became possible, and whether due in some part to direct legislation improp erly procured, to inadequate legislation, or to a failure to enforce existing law on the part of those charged with the duty of its enforcement. The cause or causes being first ascertained, the next step in orderly procedure was to ascertain the needed remedies — remedies having for their pur pose the punishment of the violators of the law and the prevention of similar
abuses of the public in the future — re medies which, while holding in check the wrongdoer, should save from spoliation or injury the innocent stockholders or bond holders, who were in sorne measure the victims of their representatives. Justice being the proper aim of all law and of all lawmakers, great care is required in such an emergency as that which came suddenly upon us, lest the innocent should suffer with the guilty, lest through illchosen and economically unsound legis lation the people as a whole should be made to suffer because of the faults committed by comparatively few. But those charged with this duty both because of official obligation and from love of country, were not permitted to work out these problems thus presented in that quiet and orderly way which should characterize a govern ment of law. Indeed, when they had scarcely begun the task which the situation devolved upon them, the demagogues of the country, seeing their opportunity, seized it. They filled the land with denunciation not only of those who had been wrongdoers, but of all corporate interests of every kind. It mattered not to them that the great trunk lines of railroad contributing so largely to the magnificent and uniform development of the country, the street surface railroads, adding so largely to the comfort and con venience of a vast contingent of our popu lation, the great manufacturing plants, bearing their part in making up the wealth of the people, and many other industries requiring large amounts of capital, could not have been built at all but for the device of the corporation, which had enabled hundreds, and in some instances hundreds of thousands of persons to unite in the construction and operation of a single great undertaking. For their purpose was not the patriotic one of discovering and applying remedies. Instead they sought power, political leadership and office. They sought them for selfish advantage, not for
