Social problems -- United States; United States -- Politics and government; United States -- Social conditions
Not only as a matter of justice and honesty, but as a matter of prime
popular interest, we should see that this control is so exercised as to
favor a proper return to the upright business manager and honest
investor. In the matter of railway rates, for instance, it is just as
much our duty to see that they are not too low as that they are not too
high. We must preserve the right of the railway employee to proper wages
and the right of the investor to proper interest as scrupulously as we
preserve the right of the shipper and the producer and the consumer. We
cannot afford to do injustice, or suffer it to be done, to any of these.
But in order to do justice we must have full knowledge. We must have the
right to find out every fact connected with the business of the railway,
so as to base our judgment, not on any one fact, but on all taken
together. Inasmuch as it is so often impossible to punish wrongs done in
the past, and to prevent the consequences of the wrongs thus committed
being felt by one innocent class, without shifting the burden to the
shoulders of another innocent class, we ought to provide that hereafter
business shall be carried on from its inception in such a way as to
prevent swindling. Incidentally, this will also tend to prevent that
excessive profit by one man, which may not be swindling, under existing
laws, but which nevertheless is against the interest of the
commonwealth; To know all the facts is of as much interest to the
investor and the wageworker as to the shipper, the producer, the
consumer. Full knowledge of the past helps us in dealing with the
future. If we find that high rates are due to overcapitalization in the
past, or to any kind of sharp practice in the past, then, whether or not
it is possible to take action which will partly remedy the wrong, we are
certainly in a better position to prevent a repetition of the wrong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account