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Show FOR PUBJJGGDNTRaL VAIL FOR REGULATION A3 WELL AS PUBLICITY. SAYS BOTH HERE TO STAY Frank Recognition of Publlo Rlflhts by the President of Western Union and Telephone Companies. Public regulation of public service eorporatlofiB ha come to stay. It ought to have come and It ought to lay. That Is the flat and unequivocal swrtlou of Theodore N. Vail, president presi-dent of both the American Telephone and Telegraph company and the Western Union Telegraph company. It came In the form of his annual report re-port to the seventy thousand stockholders stock-holders of the two great corporations. Although Mr. Vail' advocacy of full publicity In connection with the affairs f such concerns was well understood, under-stood, nobody In financial circles had Anticipated so frank an avowal of lull public rights In the shaping of ithelr general conduct. It came conee-.uently conee-.uently as a surprise, not only because be-cause of Its novelty and squarenegg, but also on account of the unqualified acquiescence of a board of directors comprising such eminent and conservative conserv-ative financiers as Robert Wlnson of Kidder. Teabody & Co., and Henry L. Hlgglnson of Boston, Henry V. Davison Davi-son of J. T. Morgan Co.; Senator W. Murray Crane, George F. Ilaer, T. Jefferson Coolldge Jr., Norman V Harris, John I. Waterbury and others. President Vall's declaration la heralded her-alded as the first recognition by those In high corporate authority of the Justice Jus-tice of the demand that the public be regarded as virtual partners In all matters thst pertain to the common welfare. He goes directly to th point. "Public control or regulation of public service corporations by permanent perma-nent commissions," he says, "has come and come to stay. Control, or regulation, to be effective means publicity; pub-licity; It means semi public discussion discus-sion and consideration before action; It means everything which Is the opposite op-posite of and inconsistent with effective effec-tive competition. Competition aggressive, ag-gressive, effective competition means strife. Industrial warfare; It means contention; It oftentimes means taking tak-ing advantage of or resorting to any means that the conscience of the contestants con-testants or the degree of the enforcement enforce-ment of the laws will permit. "Aggressive competition means duplication of plant and Investment. The ultimate object of such competition competi-tion Is the possession of tho field wholly or partially; therefore It means either ultimate combination on uch basis and with such prices as will cover past losses, or It means loss of return on Investment, and eventual Iors of capital. However It results, all costs of aggressive, uncontrolled un-controlled competition are eventually borne, directly or Indirectly, by the public. Competition which Is not aggressive, ag-gressive, presupposes cooperative action, ac-tion, understanding, agreements, which result In general uniformity or harmony of action, which, In fact. Is not competition but Is combination, unstable, but for the time effective. When thoroughly understood It will be found that "control" will give more of the benefits and public advantages, ad-vantages, which are expected to be obtained through such ownership, and will obtain them without the public burden of either the publlo officeholder office-holder or publlo debt or operating deficit. "When through a wise and Judicious Judi-cious state control and regulation all the advantages without any of tie disadvantages of state ownership are secured, state ownership is doomed." "It Mr. Vail Is right," says Harper's Weekly, In a concise summing-up, "then It seems pretty plain that we are entered upon new era In both economics and politics. And It Is high time we did if evolution Is to supplant sup-plant revolution as an efficient force in the development of civilization." |
