Septembee 5, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



377 



should be some system of cooperation be- 

 tween the State and the Federal offices. 



Another strong argument in favor of 

 such cooperation is derived from the fact 

 that at present the State and the Federal 

 governments are constantly canvassing 

 manufacturing establishments and the peo- 

 ple generally for statistical data. This du- 

 plication, or rather repetition, of attempts 

 to secure information is becoming very an- 

 noying to the public generally, and causes 

 the fear that there will be a revolt on the 

 part of some interests, and makes it essential 

 that these canvasses should take place as 

 rarely as possible. Constant calls for in- 

 formation where no remuneration is pro- 

 vided for furnishing it result oftentimes 

 not in careless answers but in positive re- 

 fusals to comply with official requests. 

 Again, while governments are constantly 

 requesting manufacturers and others for 

 information, the secretaries of trade asso- 

 ciations, the editors of almanacs and year- 

 books, and the compilers of encyclopedias 

 and other works, are also besieging them for 

 specific information for their various pub- 

 lications. These calls complicate the work 

 of government offices. 



The Change of Position, during the Nine- 

 teenth Century, of the Business Corpora- 

 tion: Judge Simeon E. Baldwin, Su- 

 preme Court of Connecticut, New Haven. 

 The close of the nineteenth century found 

 the business of the world in the hands of 

 private business corporations. It was not 

 so in 1800 nor at any previous time in the 

 history of the world. How came it? 



The existence of such artificial persons 

 was first freely permitted by Eome under 

 the republic; but they grew so powerful 

 that this could not be tolerated under the 

 empire. The only form of Roman corpora- 

 tion (universitas) which survived to re- 

 appear in the beginnings of modern society 

 was the university of scholars. Private in- 



corporation at will under general laws, for 

 business purposes, remained unknown for 

 nearly 1,800 years. The few corporations 

 of this kind that did exist existed under a 

 special franchise. They were monopolies. 

 They often grew inconceivably great. They 

 fostered speculation, and were generally 

 distrusted by the people. Great commer- 

 cial partnerships were resorted to for large 

 undertakings. Prior to 1800 there were 

 only 225 business corporations in the United 

 States, and of these two thirds were to pro- 

 mote quasi-public objects like canals, etc. 

 The first American general incorporation 

 law was for canals, in 1795. New York fol- 

 lowed in 1811 with one for certain kinds 

 of manufacturing enterprises, and in the 

 course of the next seventy years freedom of 

 incorporation on equal terms to all became 

 the rule in almost all civilized countries. 

 The freer and the richer a country is, the 

 freer will be its general incorporation laws, 

 and the more numerous the corporations 

 formed under them. This and the enor- 

 mous increase of the world's wealth since 

 1800 are the two factors which have put 

 into the hands of the modern corporation 

 the business of the world. 



Sentimental considerations largely in- 

 fluenced this course of events. Popular 

 distrust and jealousy kept men from invest- 

 ing in corporations or from wishing them 

 well, so long as their character was mo- 

 nopolistic. The modern corporation is in- 

 dividualistic. It asks nothing from the State 

 but to be let alone. The 'trust' at first was 

 an abandonment of the corporate idea for 

 that of partnership. Now it is reverting to 

 the corporate type. The mobility of most 

 business corporations is as great as is that 

 of a natural person. It is greater, for they 

 can choose their birthplace, and incorporate 

 where they find incorporation offered on 

 the easiest terms. They can also reincor- 

 porate subsequently in some other State, 

 and so, Phcenix-like, die and revive again. 



