No. 7. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 203 



This led to partnerships, general and special, and to limited as- 

 sociations of various kinds, and to joint stock companies; and when 

 demands for aggregate capital became larger and men were not 

 willing to stake their all in a single enterprise, corporations were 

 invented, so that the liability of the contributor might not be 

 general, but special, and dependent upon the amount of his interest 

 in the concern. 



A man would be rash to assert to you that corporations are an 

 unqualitied good — but in my judgment he would be equally rash if 

 he were to say to you that they were an unqualified evil. Their 

 necessity and their general power for good is quite apart from the 

 incidental evils which attend some of them, and the balance is so 

 largely in their favor, that even those who are most prejudiced are 

 bound to concede that they have been, and now are, powerful and 

 potent factors in the material prosperity of the country. 



Let me call your attention to expressions of learned jurists upon 

 this subject — expressions called forth by important trials pending 

 before them, wherein the cause for and against corporations has 

 been urged and fought by men learned in the law, and learned in 

 the subject which we are considering: 



Says Judge Caton, of Illinois: "Corporations have become among 

 the greatest means of state and national prosperity." 



Our own Judge Gibson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 

 Pennsylvania, says, in Commonwealth vs. Carlisle: 



"The combination of capital for purposes of commerce, or to 

 carry on any other branch of industry, although it may in its conse 

 quences operate on third persons, * * * is a common means 

 of the ordinary course of human affairs which stimulates to competi- 

 tion, and enables men to engage in undertakings too weighty for 

 one individual." 



Says Mr. Justice Field, of the United States Court, "As a matter 

 of fact, nearly all enterprises in this State, requiring for their execu- 

 tion the expenditure of large capital, are undertakings by corpora 

 tions. They engage in commerce; they build and sail ships; they 

 cover our navigable streams with steamers; they construct houses; 

 they bring the products of earth and sea to market; they light our 

 streets and buildings; they open and work mines; they carry water 

 into our cities; they build railroads and cross mountains and deserts 

 with them; they erect churches, colleges, lyceums and theatres; 

 they set up manufactories, and keep the spindle and shuttle in mo- 

 tion; they establish banks for savings; they insure against acci- 

 dents on land and sea; they give policies on life; they make money 

 exchanges with all parts of the world; they publish newspapers 

 and books, and send news by lightning across the continent and 

 under the ocean. Indeed, there is nothing that is lawful to be done 



