LAW AS A DISTURBER OF SOCIAL ORDER. 641 



may here say that this method has seldom found favor with 

 legislators. 



As is usually the case, if legislation is to be invoked, it is 

 generally in favor of those already strong in aggressive energy, 

 and with these legislative aids the way is paved for the rich to 

 become richer and the strong to become stronger. In this case 

 the rich were furnished a substitute for confidence by a law which 

 limited the duties and the liabilities of those combining, whereas 

 it has been shown that in a healthy social state trusts and duties 

 must be coextensive. 



Legislators practically declared that, while they could not 

 make men honest, they could establish confidence by so limiting 

 the liability of those combining that honesty, instead of being an 

 essential element of trust, would be inconsequential as an indus- 

 trial force, for the possible chances of loss to the investor should 

 be small. In this manner legislation pushed men together who 

 would not be drawn together by mutual confidence ; and society, 

 having seen fit to trust those who would not trust each other, now 

 complains of the insolence, injustice, and dishonesty of corj)ora- 

 tions! But, while denouncing corporations in unstinted terms, 

 there are those who still regard them as a public blessing, essential 

 to the times, but pray their legislators to deprive them of their 

 sting, much after the manner of those who, while insisting upon 

 the heavier waters of the lakes, would seek to legislate away the 

 natural and inevitable consequences of doubling their specific 

 gravity. 



Those possessed of capital are entitled to its rewards. Those 

 enjoying the confidence of others are equally entitled to its bless- 

 ings. But, in providing the capitalist a substitute for confidence 

 or trust, government neutralizes the forces which reside in hon- 

 esty and justice, and makes inert as an industrial factor the trust 

 and confidence of the poor. 



Is there an enterj^rise of uncertain origin or doubtful purpose, 

 it appears as an incorporated company. Firms upon the verge of 

 bankruptcy, or about to take hazardous risks, change a partner- 

 ship into a joint-stock company. Swindling patent-right, insur- 

 ance, and mining schemes all take the form of corporations ; but 

 if the liability of a joint-stock company is limited, it simply 

 means that the possible losses to society are without limit. An 

 incorporated company with one hundred thousand dollars' worth 

 of stock fails for eleven hundred thousand dollars ; the company 

 is liable for a hundred thousand dollars in addition to their stock, 

 while the trusting public is called upon to lose a million dollars. 

 Why, in the name of justice, should society give to corporations 

 unlimited chances for profit, when, in case of loss or failure, soci- 

 ety itself must bear the burden of all losses which exceed the 



VOL. XXXIV. — 41 



