The Labor Question 259 



to make a promise which they either know, or should 

 know, can not be kept. No small part of our troubles 

 in dealing with many of the gravest social questions, 

 such as the so-called labor question, the trust ques 

 tion, and others like them, arises from these two at 

 titudes. We can do a great deal when we undertake, 

 soberly, to do the possible. When we undertake the 

 impossible, we too often fail to do anything at all. 

 The success of the law for the taxation of franchises 

 recently enacted in New York State, a measure which 

 has resulted in putting upon the assessment books 

 nearly $200,000,000 worth of property which had 

 theretofore escaped taxation, is an illustration of how 

 much can be accomplished when effort is made along 

 sane and sober lines, with care not to promise the 

 impossible but to make performance square with 

 promise, and with insistence on the fact that hon 

 esty is never one-sided, and that in dealing with cor 

 porations it is necessary both to do to them and to 

 exact from them full and complete justice. The 

 success of this effort, made in a resolute but also a 

 temperate and reasonable spirit, shows what can be 

 done when such a problem is approached in a sound 

 and healthy manner. It offers a striking contrast to 

 the complete breakdown of the species of crude and 

 violent anti-trust legislation which has been so often 

 attempted, and which has always failed, because of 

 its very crudeness and violence, to make any impres- 



