what should be our governmental policy as follows: "Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country with enough room for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisition of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter-with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens-a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned--this is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." The concluding sentence of this extract, answering the interrogatory propounded by this great man to himself and his countrymen, is perhaps as good statement of the laisser faire theory of government as it is possible to compress within the same compass. And if a government on this plan, not merely professedly through its official promulgations and utterances, but actually in its practical administration, and likewise the great body of people who live under it be permeated and controlled by the ethics, to say nothing of the spiritual teachings of that Christianity so highly extolled by this most eminent statesman, usually classed, as he is, amongst freethinkers, and industrial methods had continued as they were in his time, perhaps nothing would be left to be accomplished by legislative enact ments towards diminishing the great natural inequalities amongst men and towards protecting the weak against the strong. But things have changed since Mr. Jefferson's day. Verily tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. The present state of industrial development and the present methods of business were far outside of his intellectual horizon, wide as it undoubtedly was. At the time he became the executive head of the government he assumed that individual effort, unhampered by restrictions of any sort, and natural competition, and no other, would always be the chief rules in the struggles of economic life. The renaissance, or more properly speaking, the new departure in the industrial and economic pursuits to which reference has been made and its rapid and constantly expanding growth, has been attributed to a number of causes, chief amongst which may be reckoned the many inventions in labor saving machinery, the enlarged applications of steam as a motive power and the greatly increased use of electricity for the manifold purposes it has been made to serve; and doubtless the extension of popular education, and the general diffusion of intelligence, facilitated by a most prolific and enterprising press, have contributed largely to these changes. And it may be here noted that popular education and the newspaper press have been specially instrumental in awakening the laboring classes to a knowledge of their rights and power, and in stimulating the formation of the labor unions hereinafter mentioned. The peoples of the world have been brought much closer together than ever before, and industrial and financial schemes scarcely before dreamed of have been made possible. These schemes require aggregations, and consequently combinations, of capital and business talent and energy on an unprecedented scale. Indeed, it has been claimed that the revolution in business methods and the scale upon which business, to be profitable, must be done, consequent upon the enlarged uses of steam, electricity and labor saving machinery render these aggregations and combinations not only convenient, but essentially necessary. At any rate, the masterful minds engaged in the business affairs of the world were not slow in recognizing their value and in determining to take steps to make them available. But neither individuals nor associations of individuals, whatever the aggregate of their combined wealth, were willing to risk their entire fortunes in these great schemes, however promising and inviting they might be. Within my easy recollection, nearly, if not quite all, of the British companies for insurance against fire, doing business in this country, in every risk underwritten by them imposed an unlimited liability on their individual shareholders. But the idea of unlimited liability in enterprises carried on by associations was never popular with American capitalists, and when large combinations of capital seemed very desirable in order to the carrying on of any business on a scale to make it profitable, the idea of the corporation, with limited liability, suggested itself. In considering the condition of two or more rival corporations at a later stage of modern industrial development than that for the present moment under consideration, when competition has reduced prices below the cost of production and something seems necessary to curtail production and regulate prices, it has been said that in this emergency combination steps in like some deus ex machina, making peace between the rivals and relieving the situation; and this observation would seem equally applicable to the advent of the limited liability corporation when individuals and partnerships are coming together for a combination of their means and resources at the outset of a united enterprise. The corporation as a convenient agency for carrying on business was by no means new; it had long been in use, and in a general way had answered its purposes very well. But before the late revival of interest in them there had been comparatively but few very large and wealthy corporations in this country, or, indeed, elsewhere, and those that existed were public service corporations or of the character of such. Now there are in existence and active operation many corporate enterprises, the magnitude of which less than a century ago would have been regarded as quite impossible. And their growth, especially in very recent years, has been truly phenomenal. Should there be no change in existing tendencies, the proportions to which some of them may grow is almost beyond the imagination. Not only have these great corporations been formed in various parts of our country for carrying on business in their respective sections, but combinations of capital and resources proving remunerative to the several corporations acting separately, combinations were made amongst these bodies themselves. And when the courts interfered to dissolve or prevent these corporations, on the ground that they violated the rules of the common law against monopolies and contracts in restraint of trade, resort was had to what are known as holding companies. These combinations and consolidations are all, in common parlance, designated as trusts. They continue to multiply and increase in magnitude, and apparently to increase in prosperity in proportion to their growth in size. These great combinations in capital, business experience and administrative talent have naturally brought about amongst the laborers in their service great combinations known as labor unions, with the result that the trusts and the unions are in a state of continual antagonism with not infrequent conflicts in the shape of "strikes" and "lock-outs." And the toiling masses on the outside are usually in sympathy with the toilers in the unions. What is to be the final outcome, no man knoweth. Even the most thoughtful amongst those who have made the problem a study can make no predictions as to the result that are satisfactory to themselves, much less to others. One of the great statisticians and economists of England said a few years ago, that before the science of economics could be properly written, another science would have to be written the science of human nature. present there is apparently no limit to these combinations on the part of capitalists, and in some departments of the country's At business, notably just now in the business of steam transportation both by land and water, it would seem that one corporation or trust might compass it all, and thus establish a practical monopoly-unless human nature should rebel. At times it would seem that the socialistic tendencies of capital for the benefit of the few might be merged in what is called "State Socialism" for the benefit of all. The thinkers in the more advanced school of socialists, not condemning these socialistic tendencies, but rather welcoming them as natural, say the logical result should be governmental socialism for the benefit of all the people. And it has been said by others, whe are not socialists, that at no distant day there may be presented the alternative of ownership of the government by the trusts or the ownership of the trusts by the government. But I am not here to discuss this great question. These immense combinations are referred to now as evidencing the value of the corporate idea in the accomplishment of the greatest results-results, too, good in themselves, and of incalculable benefit to the general public, if not diverted by the corporate management to improper ends. Whilst these great enterprises can be, and too often are, made engines for the accomplishment of the greatest abuses, there is no necessary connection between their uses and abuses. The corporate idea prevails in almost every department of business in this country. And the corporation as an instrumentality or agency of business is with us, and is with us to stay. Under proper legal restrictions and under the management of competent and honest officials, it can be made to accomplish in the future, as it has in the recent past, results alike important and beneficial, and on a scale quite beyond individual or partnership enterprise. The task I have set for myself to-day, is to submit to this Association some thoughts and to make some suggestions in relation to Private Business Corporations in Virginia. In so doing, I will not make more than incidental reference to public service or quasi public service corporations, nor to |