scandals to our civilization. The man who by swindling or wrongdoing acquires great wealth for himself at the expense of his fellow, stands as low morally as any predatory mediaeval nobleman, and is a more dangerous member of society. Any law, and any method of construing the law which will enable the community to punish him, either by taking away his wealth or by imprisonment, should be welcomed. Of course, such laws are even more needed in dealing with great corporations or trusts than with individuals. They are needed quite as much for the sake of honest corporations as for the sake of the public. The corporation that manages its affairs honestly has a right to demand protection against the dishonest corporation. We do not wish to put any burden on honest corporations. Neither do we wish to put an unnecessary burden of responsibility on enterprising men for acts which are immaterial; they should be relieved from such burdens, but held to a rigid financial accountability for acts that mislead the upright investor or stockholder, or defraud the public.

"The first essential is knowledge of the facts, publicity. Much can be done at once by amendment of the corporation laws so as to provide for such publicity as will not work injustice as between business rivals.

"The chief abuses alleged to arise from trusts are probably the following: Misrepresentation or concealment regarding material facts connected with the organization of an enterprise; the evils connected with unscrupulous promotion; overcapitalization; unfair competition, resulting in the crushing out of competitors who themselves do not act improperly; raising of prices above fair competitive rates; the wielding of increased power over the wage earners. Of course none of these abuses may exist in a particular trust, but in many trusts, as well as in many corporations not ordinarily called trusts, one or more of them are evident. Some of these evils could be partially remedied by modification of our corporation laws; here we can safely go along the lines of the more conservative New England States, and probably not a little farther. Such laws will themselves provide the needed publicity, and the needed circumstantiality of statement. We should know authoritatively whether stock represents actual value of plants, or whether it represents brands or good will; or if not, what it does represent, if anything. It is desirable to know how much was actually bought, how much was issued free; and to whom; and, if possible, for what reason. In the first place, this would be invaluable in preventing harm being done as among stockholders, for many of the grossest wrongs that are perpetrated are those of promoters and organizers at the expense of the general public who are invited to take shares in business organizations. In the next place, this would enable us to see just what the public have a right to expect in the way of service and taxation. There is no reason whatever for refusing to tax a corporation because by its own acts it

has created a burden of charges under which it staggers. The extravagant man who builds a needlessly large house nevertheless pays taxes on the house; and the corporation which has to pay great sums of interest owing to juggling transactions in the issue of stocks and bonds has just as little right to consideration. But very great hardship may result to innocent purchasers; and publicity, by lessening the possibility of this, would also serve the purpose of the State.

"Where a trust becomes a monopoly the State has an immediate right to interfere. Care should be taken not to stifle enterprise or disclose any facts of a business that are essentially private; but the State for the protection of the public should exercise the right to inspect, to examine thoroughly all the workings of great corporations just as is now done with banks; and whenever the interests of the public demand it, it should publish the results of its examination. Then, if there are inordinate profits, competition or public sentiment will give the public the benefit in lowered prices; and if not the power of taxation remains. It is therefore evident that publicity is the one sure and adequate remedy, which we can now invoke. There may be other remedies, but what these others are we can only find out by publicity, as the result of investigation. The first requisite is knowledge, full and complete." The Governor proceeded to discuss Labor Questions:

"I call the attention of the Legislature to the reports of the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration, of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics and of the State Factory Inspector. During the past year very valuable labor measures have been enacted into laws, and they are well enforced. I am happy to say that in speaking of labor legislation I can talk mainly of performance -not of promise. Additional legislation will undoubtedly from time to time become necessary; but many vitally needed laws have already been put upon the statute books. As experience shows their defects, these will be remedied. A stringent eight-hour labor law has been enacted. This is working well as a whole.

"In nothing do we need to exercise cooler judgment than in labor legislation. Such legislation is absolutely necessary, alike from the humanitarian and the industrial standpoints; and it is as much our duty to protect the weaker wage-workers from oppression as to protect helpless investors from fraud. But we must be aware above all things of that injudicious and ill-considered benevolence which usually in the long run defeats its own ends. To discourage industry and thrift ultimately amounts to putting a premium on poverty and shiftlessness. It is neither of benefit to the individual nor to society needlessly to handicap superior ability and energy, and to reduce their possessor to the level of work and gain suited for his less able and energetic rivals. "There have been a large number of strikes for increase of wages during

the past year. The fact that these strikes were not against a reduction, but for an increase, is due to the prosperous condition of the country and State generally. The services of the present excellent Board of Mediation and Arbitration have been in almost constant demand, and they have been gratifyingly successful. The number of controversies amicably adjusted directly and indirectly through its influence, has been greater than that during any year since its creation. The work of mediation—that is, of settling the dispute before it has reached an acute stage-is even more important and successful than that of arbitration proper, after the strike is once on. This being so, it would be well to enact legislation which would compel parties to labor disputes to notify the Board of impending trouble, or of strikes and lockouts.

"The experiment of publishing a quarterly bulletin by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has worked excellently and the bulletin should be continued and improved. I suggest that it would be well to define by statute the questions that may legally be asked of manufacturers by this Bureau. Abuses have occurred in connection with the employment offices in the larger cities, which are now allowed to violate the law with impunity, the power of punishment lying with the local authorities. It would be well to require the keeper of any employment office to procure a license from the State, as in Minnesota and other States. This license should be granted on the payment of a substantial fee, and the business would thus be restricted to responsible parties and kept under the control of the State administration.

"The measures suggested in my message of last year and carried into effect by legislation, increasing the number of factory inspectors, and requiring a license for all shops and rooms where garments are made for general employers, have already greatly increased the efficiency of the Factory Inspector's Department, and enlarged its service to the public. Too little time has elapsed since the sweatshop law went into effect, in September, to give a full report of its benefits. As illustrating its efficiency in interfering with sweatshops I may mention that so far under its provisions 4,942 licenses have been granted and 918 refused. These 918 cases represent the sweatshops which would now have been in operation save for this law and for the way it has been enforced.

"I shall not ask for any increase of the number of salaried inspectors. this year; but I recommend that the power be given to the Governor and to the Factory Inspector to name, whenever necessary, unsalaried inspectors to undertake special investigation or aid the Department at special times. Such assistance would increase the efficiency of the work of the Department without imposing added burdens upon the State.

"I urge that the Legislature give particular attention to the need of reform in the laws governing the tenement houses. The Tenement House

Commission of 1894 declared that, in its opinion, the Tenement House Laws needed to be revised as often as once in five years, and I am confident that the improvements in building materials and construction of tenements, and the advance in sanitary legislation all demand further modification of existing laws. Probably the best course to follow would be to appoint a commission to present a revised code of Tenement House Laws.

"Owing to defects in the drug clerks' bill presented last year, I was unable to sign it. I am, however, in hearty sympathy with the objects sought in the bill. I trust that a satisfactory bill may be presented this year, and shall be glad to give such a bill my approval.

"The liability of employers to their employees is now recognized in the laws of most of the great industrial communities of the world. While employers ought not to be burdened to such an extent as to endanger ordinary business transactions, yet the State should, so far as possible, protect those employees engaged in dangerous occupations and should see that every reasonable provision is taken to guard their rights."

Here we have in remarkable array the vital questions-those that have fire in them-the things the people are thinking and talking about-and they are far and away more interesting in the consideration given them by the President of the United States, when he was Governor of the State of New York, even than his utterances as President.

It would be hard in the great roll of Governors to find such a discussion in their public papers as appears here. The "problems" he presented in his most excellent method to his State, are all singly applicable to the United States. Elsewhere the Governor spoke of the City of New York, in sorrow and anger, this summary of pride and bitterness:

"There is no reason to suppose that the condition of the working classes as a whole has grown worse, though there are enormous bodies of them whose condition is certainly very bad. There are grave social dangers and evils to meet, but there are plenty of earnest and devoted men and women who devote their mind and energies to meeting them. With many very serious shortcomings and defects, the average New Yorker yet possesses courage, energy, business capacity, much generosity of a practical sort, and shrewd, humorous common sense. The greedy tyranny of the unscrupulous rich and the anarchic violence of the vicious and ignorant poor are ever threatening dangers; but though there is every reason why we should realize the gravity of the perils ahead of us, there is none why we should not face them with confident and resolute hope, if only each of us, according to the measure of his capacity, will with manly honesty and good faith do his share of the all-important duties incident to American citizenship."

That which the Governor's first message contains that concerns especially and expressly the State of New York, is exceedingly well stated, and has served its purpose. There is fullness of information and adept application in the review of many things, and a share of attention given to a surprising scope of interests. The Governor pleaded for the preservation of the forests and the game they contained, and incidentally remarked:

"Hardy outdoor sports, like hunting, are in themselves of no small value to the national character and should be encouraged in every way. Men who go into the wilderness, indeed men who take part in any field sports with horse or rifle, receive a benefit which can hardly be given by even the most vigorous athletic games.

"The State should not permit within its limits factories to make bird skins or bird feathers into articles of ornament or wearing apparel. Ordinary birds, and especially song birds, should be rigidly protected. Game birds should never be shot to a greater extent than will offset the natural rate of increase. All spring shooting should be prohibited and efforts made by correspondence with the neighboring States to secure its prohibition within their borders. Care should be taken not to encourage the use of cold storage or other market systems which are a benefit to no one but the wealthy epicure who can afford to pay a heavy price for luxuries. These systems tend to the destruction of the game; which would bear most severely upon the very man whose rapacity has been appealed to in order to secure its extermination.

"The open season for the different species of game and fish should be made uniform throughout the entire State, save that it should be shorter on Long Island for certain species which are not plentiful and which are pursued by a greater number of people than in other game portions of the State."

The repeal of the Horton Boxing Law was recommended as follows: "I called the attention of the Legislature to the so-called Horton Boxing Law, now on the statute books, and recommend its repeal. If this law merely fulfilled the expectations of its original advocates; and if it were executed as it was executed during the first year it was enacted, there would be no need of this recommendation. Rough vigorous pastimes are excellent things for the nation; for they promote manliness, being good in their effects not merely on the body, but upon the character, which is far more important than the body. It is an admirable thing for any boy or young man whose work is of a sedentary character to take part in vigorous play, so long as it is not carried to excess, or allowed to interfere with his work. Every exercise that tends to develop bodily vigor, daring, endurance, resolution and self-command should be encouraged. Boxing is a fine sport; but this affords no justification of prize fighting, any more than the fact that a cross country run or a ride on a wheel is healthy justifies such a demoralizing exhibition as a six days' race,