Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of AmalgamatedLawson, Thomas William
History
Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated
Lawson, Thomas William
Amalgamated Copper Co.; Gas companies -- Massachusetts -- Boston; Insurance -- United States; Speculation; Standard Oil Company
"We create you for the purpose of doing those things that are best for
the many, not the few, and if we knew you would use our authority to
oppress the many in the interest of the few we would not create you."
The fundamental privilege of incorporation is the legal authorization to
issue paper titles of ownership to the business just incorporated. These
are in the form of stocks and bonds. Whoever owns these paper titles
shall possess the property and the business as the individuals did
before they incorporated, and the law presumes that they shall manage
and control that business, receive the benefits which come from it, and
suffer any loss arising from its conduct, and that all these benefits
and responsibilities shall be as laid down in the law. It follows that
no harm other than that the law expressly prescribes penalties to
prevent can come to any one from corporations thus created, always
provided the laws are what they appear and what the people intended them
to be, and that they are enforced as the people intended they should be.
It is most important to all concerned in a corporation that the paper
ownership shall represent the real value of the property on which it is
based, and no more. When the people exchange their savings for these
authorized paper tokens, they should be able to rest confident in the
State's guarantee that they are worth what they purport.
There have probably been jailed in the United States during the past
twenty years thousands and thousands of American citizens whose
aggregate stealings do not amount to one-tenth the total taken from the
people by either the Amalgamated, the United States Steel, the American
Tobacco Company, or a score of other fraudulently organized or
fraudulently conducted corporations.
There are various ways of organizing corporations and issuing their
stocks and bonds. Sometimes a company is organized to acquire a
property; individuals and institutions set down their names to take and
pay for the shares or bonds. With the money thus obtained the property
is purchased. _Or_ the individuals who own the property which is to be
the basis of the corporation exchange it for all or part of the stocks
and bonds. In the latter event those original owners usually sell to the
public the tokens thus acquired.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account