The Lever | Page 7

the magnet's
needle? Ambition influences an honorable legislator apparently to
condone acts which he knows are wrong, that he may gain a Governor's
chair, from which position he can more surely crush out the evils he has
always recognized and abhorred. I do not say that all our stockholders
are influenced by the guarantee I have given them that a franchise or a
concession awarded to the Consolidated Companies means an
advantage to the people they serve, but I have at least convinced them
by word and act of my own sincerity, and of the possibility of so
conducting the Companies that these results can be obtained. I do not
even say that every public official who co-operates with us is actuated
by the highest motives in giving the Consolidated Companies special
privileges, but I do say that he may properly be so actuated--and the
public receives the benefits."

"But think of the power which this corporation must eventually possess,
and the powerlessness of any individual or organization, business or
otherwise, to oppose it."
"Why should they wish to oppose it?" Gorham continued. "As I have
said, the combinations suggested can but result in economies in
production and consequent reductions in the living expenses of the
masses."
"Yet you would hardly suggest that the Consolidated Companies has
been launched as a philanthropic enterprise?"
Gorham's smile returned. "Not primarily, yet the people have already
been benefited in no small degree. It is entirely possible to conduct it
along lines which will reduce the cost of all public utilities and
necessities, and yet secure large financial returns to the Companies."
"I was thinking--" Kenmore began, and then stopped.
"Well?" Gorham encouraged, interrogatively.
"I was thinking what an easy thing it is to mistake a temptation for an
opportunity."
"Or the reverse," Gorham remarked, significantly, flushing slightly.
"Does it not all depend upon the basis on which the corporation is
administered?"
As the Senator ventured no reply, Gorham continued, with more feeling
than he had as yet displayed:
"You and I, Mr. Kenmore, are familiar with the contention made by our
great captains of industry that they are entitled to the vast fortunes
which they have amassed as a return for the benefits which the public
enjoys as a result of their energy and the risks they have taken. They
have opened up new sections of the country, provided transportation
facilities which were previously lacking, or have increased those which
already existed; they have multiplied industries which promoted

increase in population and trade, and have thus largely contributed to
the prosperity enjoyed by the communities themselves and by the
country at large."
"All of which the Consolidated Companies claims to be doing, or about
to do, upon a scale which makes similar past achievements seem
insignificant," interrupted Kenmore.
"Yes," Gorham assented, "but with a fuller appreciation that these
accomplishments are not the results alone of individual ability, but far
more of the exercise of the corporate power placed in its hands, not for
its unlimited personal gain, but intrusted to it by law for public
advantage. The law confers upon a corporate organization a power far
beyond that which any individual himself could obtain; it enables him
to make use of capital which thousands have contributed, toward whom
he stands in a relation of trust, and without whom he could not
accomplish the individual triumphs which become so magnified in his
own mind, and for which he demands so great a recompense. The
Consolidated Companies considers itself bound to use franchise
privileges and corporate organization for the equal benefit of all those
who contribute of their capital, with due regard for those public
interests which corporations are created to serve, and to rest content
with a fair return upon its own capital and a reasonable compensation
for their services, on the part of the officers of the enterprises of which
it assumes the responsibility and direction."
"How long do you think the Consolidated Companies can be run upon
such altruistic principles?"
"As long as Robert Gorham remains its president and as long as those
men whose names you have seen there remain its directors. This is my
pledge. When the Consolidated Companies, intrusted with the power,
credit, and resources of the many corporations which are and will be
included in it, but which are not agencies of its own creation and do not
belong to it, begins to take advantage of these for personal profit
beyond legitimate return upon investment and fair compensation for
services rendered, it will be guilty of a gross betrayal of trust. When it
issues securities in excess of the requirements of its business and

manipulates them for its own profit; when it makes use of its power, its
funds, or its credit in enterprises which are not for the equal benefit