No. 4.] TRUSTS AND THE FARMERS. 199 



and again by numerous schemes and diverse devices. If any 

 particular part of the business becomes specially lucrative, 

 it is considered too good for its stockholders, and must be 

 given to a company created for the purpose of diverting the 

 profits into the pockets of a favored few. 



G. Sixthly, while the rights of the directors and officers 

 are to be secured and ample power and remuneration granted 

 them, they should be made to realize their responsibility, and 

 never allowed to forget that they are the servants, not the 

 masters, of the stockholders, whose wealth is entrusted to 

 their care ; of the employees, whose labor they direct ; of the 

 consumers, whose demands they seek to supply; of the com- 

 munity, whose good-will is essential to their success ; of the 

 State, whose power is the creator and preserver of the cor- 

 poration of which they are the head. Here we should learn 

 a lesson from England, where directors are not figureheads 

 to delude the public, but men who are held strictly to the 

 performance of their responsible duties, on the penalty of 

 severe punishment for any negligence or misdemeanor. 



The one question of vital importance before the country 

 to-day is. Shall this be a government of the people, by the 

 people and for the people, or shall it be a government of the 

 trust, for the trust and by the trust? If the latter gains 

 the victory, then shall we see plutocracy established on the 

 ruins of democracy. If plutocracy is to be avoided, then 

 one of these alternatives must be chosen : — 



1. All capital shall be held by the State, so that the 

 State shall be the sole landlord and the sole employer of 

 labor. This is socialism. 



2. All natural monopolies, railroads, transmission of 

 intelligence by telegraph and telephone as well as by post- 

 ofiice, gas and electric light and water supply, shall be owned 

 and operated by the government. 



3. All monopolistic corporations shall not be owned or 

 operated by the government, but shall be controlled by the 

 government under law, enforced by dominant public opinion, 

 and compelled to subserve the best interests of all parties 

 concerned, — the State, the community, the consumers, the 

 employees, as well as the stockholders, the bondholders, the 

 directors and officers. 



