MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



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THE SEAT OF CONSERVATISM. 



It is none too early for the commercial in- 

 terests of the nation to take some account of 

 the influences which may be expected to make 

 for conservatism in the next presidential elec- 

 tion Since 1896 the presidential contests have 

 been fraught with great danger to the busi- 

 ness interests of the country. In that year 

 Mr. Bryan's candidacy was a gravely disturb- 

 ing factor, and while the approval of his theo- 

 ries might not have been followed by all the 

 ills which his opponents feared, the fact re- 

 mained that the people who owned the capital 

 of the country would have taken a very long 

 time to adjust themselves to the new situation 

 had he been elected. His second run for office 

 did not possess the same elements of danger 

 that the first did, because it was almost a 

 foregone conclusion that he would not be 

 elected. Judge Parker's candidacy for the 

 democrats in 1904 was distinctly a concession 

 to the spirit of conservatism upon the part of 

 his own political organization, and the utter 

 lack of likelihood that he would be elected 

 tended to minimize the effects of the electoral 

 struggle. 



Just now, however, tnere is a deal of dis- 

 turbing sentiment in the minds of Americans, 

 and neither of the great political parties has 

 an entire monopoly of it. From being the 

 great radical party of the past the republican 

 party had gradually become the great con- 

 servative party, just as the democracy, from 

 being the great conservative party, had be- 

 come the vehicle for the expression of radical 

 sentiments. Today a further modification of 

 sentiment is noticeable. There is quite as 

 much radicalism among republican leaders as 

 there is among democratic statesmen. In- 

 deed, the modification is most marked among 

 the democrats, who see that if they are to 

 have a chance to win at all, it must come from 

 being the expounders of the doctrines of 

 sound conservatism of government and as the 

 opponents of the radical new ideas of parental 

 government. 



In this connection it is quite interesting, 

 therefore, to note the growth of conservative 

 sentiment among the democrats. Entirely 

 apart from the political side of the two great 

 parties, and considering them solely as the 

 representatives of two great but divergent 

 schools of thought upon the science of gov- 

 ernment, each of the political parties, whether 

 it be in or out of power, is a contributor to 

 the welfare of the nation. Consequently the 

 growth of the influence of either party in the 

 right direction is to be commended. This 

 growth has been specially noticeable on the 

 part of the democracy, and particularly among 

 the democrats of the South. These are the 

 real backbone of the party, and their remand 

 for conservative platforms, which respect the 

 rights of property and limit the powers of 

 government to its proper functions, has al- 

 ready had a profound influence upon the po- 

 litical thought of the nation. It was the 

 strong southern expression which made it un- 

 popular to talk about government ow-nership 

 of railroads in democratic circles. It is the 



strong southern expression against other 

 forms of socialistic and paternalistic govern- 

 ment that will keep its party straight. 



The character of these expressions is wor- 

 thy of note. Nowhere in the country is poli- 

 tics being discussed in such a dignified and 

 earnest manner as in the South. A recent is- 

 sue of the Charlottesville Progress shows that 

 the southern people appreciate their position. 

 Note the following from its columns: 



"It does not seem to have occurred to a 

 large number of our esteemed contemporaries 

 that a new generation has succeeded to the 

 old, both on this side and the other side of the 

 Potomac; that the sectional prejudices, ap- 

 prehensions, suspicions and animosities be- 

 queathed to the country by the civil war and 

 the still darker episode of reconstruction lie 

 buried in the graves of those who nursed 

 them; that we live under a new dispensation 

 and have inherited a new philosophy. 



"In this respect the South is far behind the 

 North, for while we still imagine ourselves 

 the objects of northern distrust and fear, the 

 fact is that we are objects of northern inter- 

 est and friendly expectation. The South has 

 come to be regarded as the stronghold of 

 Anglo-Saxon civilization, the citadel of an 

 imperturable conservatism, and the exemplar 

 of a wholesome, normal and clean handed 

 prosperity; and northern men are free to 

 acknowledge that a people who hr.ve erected 

 such an impressive monument of social and 

 material greatness can safely be trusted in the 

 field .of political constructive design." 



Such expressions bode good for the influ- 

 ence of political parties on commercial condi- 

 tions. There is a rare difference between their 

 keynote and that of the expressions of 11 

 years ago, and the difference is a grateful one. 



A RIFT IN THE CLOUD. 



A rift in the cloud of socialism, which ha< 

 been shutting out the sunlight of correct 

 thinking in certain quarters in this country for 

 a long time back has at last appeared. The 

 message of Gov. Hughes, of New York, to 

 the legislative assembly of that state, carrying 

 his veto of the bill passed by the assembly 

 making two-cent fares obligatory upon all 

 steam railroads, is' the first markedly bold ut- 

 terance by any American in public life in favor 

 of the rights of corporations. Gov. Hughes 

 called the attention of the legislative assem- 

 bly to the fact that a radical measure had 

 been passed and that so far as his information 

 went, there had not been sufficient investiga- 

 tion of the conditions affecting the steam rail- 

 road business to warrant the passage of so 

 revolutionary a measure. There had been no 

 investigation of existing or prospective oper- 

 ating costs. There had been no investigation 

 of the trend of public and legislative opinion in 

 the direction of imposing additional burdens 

 upon these public service corporations, bur- 

 dens affecting both the investment in the en- 

 terprises and the expenditures to be made in 

 connection with their maintenance. There had 

 been no investigation made, either, in which 

 the inquirers projected themselves sufficiently 

 into the future to determine to what lengths 

 the public will go in requiring great physical 

 changes in railroads, especially in cities, with 

 the view of removing the hazards and incon- 

 veniences resulting from their presence. 



So that, on the face of the showing made 

 by the legislative assembly to the governor in 

 connection with the passage of the bill, it was 

 not shown that the decrease in earning power 

 forced upon the roads would not, in its turn, 

 prevent the railroads from carrying out their 

 present or their future obligations to the pub- 

 lic. 



The same conservative sense which charac- 

 terized all of Mr. Hughes' public statement? 

 during his memorable campaign against Mr. 

 Hearst for the governship, appears to inform 

 his recent veto message. Mr. Hughes recog- 

 nizes and declares that whatever measure of 

 injustice the railroad corporations themselves 

 may indulge in, in dealing with the public, that 

 injustice is not to be remedied by another act 



of injustice performed by the state in its re- 

 lations with the railroads. His clearness in 

 making the statement, and his boldness in its. 

 publication indicate to The Investor the be- 

 ginning of a new era in the form of public ex- 

 pressions upon this class of subjects. 



Certain very conservative men in private 

 life become, once they achieve public office, 

 most rampant demagogues and destruction- 

 ists. Take the case of the late Gov. Pingree, 

 as an example. In private life, that gentleman 

 would have hesitated a long time before im- 

 pugning his fellow citizen's credit or attacking 

 his reputation. Yet from the moment that he 

 became thoroughly comfortable in the chair of 

 a political office, neither personal reputation 

 nor standing as a citizen possessed any sacred- 

 ness in his eyes so long as his own political 

 advantage might be enhanced by destroying 

 them. Take Mr. La Follette, of Wisconsin. 

 In private life an absolutely just man; in pub- 

 lic life, not only willing but eager to destroy 

 every value attaching to the organization or 

 the conduct of a large property. Take some 

 of the present mayors of Michigan. We do 

 not know one of them who would burn his 

 enemy's barn or maim his neighbor's cattle. 

 Yet there are half a dozen of them busily en- 

 gaged in making of themselves feeble imita- 

 tions of Gov. Pingree by walloping away at 

 every form and phase of public service cor- 

 porations, to the destruction of values, the im- 

 pairment of service and the injury of the pri- 

 vate reputation of those who happen to come 

 into conflict with them. The course of public 

 expression in this country of late years has 

 been, not that the public itself has been doing 

 much wrong thinking, but that the political 

 leaders have imagined that they must become 

 a set of Bombastes Furiosos for the purpose 

 of attracting the public attention to them- 

 selves and of entertaining it by their antics. 



After all the whole question resolves itself 

 into one of good breeding and good training in 

 our public officials. Take the temporary and 

 accidental depository of power who is raising 

 Merry Ned about corporations and delivering 

 incoherent lectures to the public upon the ter- 

 rible wrongs to which it is exposed, and take, 

 particularly, that kind of political lunatic who 

 is telling how much inconvenience and out- 

 rage the present generation should undergo 

 for the sake of posterity, and we will show 

 you a gentleman who is not exactly certain 

 whether Shakespeare's works were written by 

 Lydia Pinkham or the author of the Peruna 

 advertisements. The class of people who in- 

 dulge in such demagoguery are invariably per- 

 sons to whom an intimate acquaintance with 

 the history of their country, with the science 

 of government, or the principles of political 

 economy constitute a tremendous library of 

 sealed books. 



However, there is one peculiarity about hu- 

 man nature which is reassuring. That is that 

 it is imitative. Pingree was an original. The 

 present crop of agitators in the middle west 

 are simply his feeble imitators. Had Mr. Pin- 

 gree, or those of his class and time, been so 

 powerful in their advocacy of conservative 

 ideas and been able to make their expressions 

 in that cause so attractive as they were in the 

 advancement of radical ideas there is not the 

 slightest doubt that half of the demagogues 

 of this day and generation would be as vio- 

 lent demagogues for conservatism as they are 

 for what they consider radicalism. With this 

 class of political cattle the issue is not that 

 of being right but of being popular. If Gov. 

 Hughes's conservatism strikes a popular 

 chord, and it is bound to do so sooner or later, 

 we will see half of the radical demagogues of 

 this day tumbling over themselves and each 

 other to get into the band wagon and be pop- 

 ular, just as eager to get votes by being right 

 then as they are eager to get them by being 

 wrong now. 



Gov. Hughes represents the trained an<I 

 schooled citizen in public office. And by train- 

 ing and schooling we do not mean the mere 

 smattering of reading, writing and arithmetic 

 which some people consider education, but the 



