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PUBLIC OPINION AND BUSINESS

the army. When they act thus in the army they are punished for mutiny and desertion. Probably no law could be framed at the present time that would cover these ideas, because it is contrary to our American ideas to say that a man shall or shall not work as he may wish. But public opinion would in time crystallize so that in some way strikes or industrial war would be things of the past, and men could only leave in a body by being mustered out in some orderly manner. We hear much about quasi-public corporations, and public opinion has gone a long way in taking away from the owner of public-service corporations the right to manage his own property, to name his own rates or prices, to decide about his methods, and has imposed on him the responsibility of providing safe and adequate public service from his private means, but so far has exerted little influence upon the men who have to make the quasi-public corporation of use to the public. If a man decides to work for a quasi-public corporation, he becomes a quasi-public servant, and he has a moral duty and

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