534 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



private trading concerns into limited-liability companies; 

 whether with benefit may be questioned. But the measure 

 has certainly yielded advantage by making it possible to 

 raise capital for relatively small industries of speculative 

 kinds. It has been beneficial, too, in making available for 

 industrial purposes, numberless savings which otherwise 

 w r ould have been idle : absorption of them into the general 

 mass of reproductive capital being furthered by the issue of 

 shares of small denominations. So that now stagnant capi 

 tal has almost disappeared. 



Before leaving the topic it is proper to point out that in 

 this case, as in other cases, coerciveness of regulation declines 

 politically, ecclesiastically, and industrially at the same time. 

 Many facts have shown us that while the individual man 

 has acquired greater liberty as a citizen and greater religious 

 liberty, he has also acquired greater liberty in respect of his 

 occupations; and here we see that he has simultaneously 

 acquired greater liberty of combination for industrial pur 

 poses. Indeed, in conformity with the universal law of 

 rhythm, there has been a change from excess of restriction 

 to deficiency of restriction. As is implied by legislation now 

 pending, the facilities for forming companies and raising 

 compound capitals have been too great. Of sundry examples 

 here is one. Directors are allowed to issue prospectuses in 

 which it is said that those who take shares will be understood 

 to waive the right to know the contents of certain prelimi 

 nary agreements, made with promoters are allowed to ask 

 the public to subscribe while not knowing fully the circum 

 stances of the case. A rational interpretation of legal prin 

 ciples would have negatived this. In any proper contract 

 the terms on both sides are distinctly specified. If they are 

 not, one of the parties to the contract is bound completely 

 while the other is bound incompletely a result at variance 

 with the very nature of contract. Where the transaction is 

 one that demands definiteness on one side while leaving the 

 other side indefinite, the law should ignore the contract as 

 one that cannot be enforced. 



