Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/414

402 between the state and corporation is, therefore, that the corporation has a tributary and subordinate function within the state as truly as the government. It is a specific function, discharging specified tasks. The corporation sustains a part of the necessary economic activity of society, over the whole of which the government exercises general supervision. Up to date we have no more expedient means at hand than the corporation on the one side and government on the other to provide for their respective shares of divided social labor. Neither of these parts of social machinery is to be considered unalterable, any more than present models of battle ships or communion cups. Each is the means at present most available for discharging its respective kind of function. With reference to the corporation our problem is, how may we secure just that function without defect or excess, and without disturbance of the other functions of society? We have to learn how to secure for the public the advantages of monopoly, administered in the anti-monopolistic spirit.

No student of political history doubts that Prussia is deeply indebted to Frederick the Great for his application of the theory of "benevolent despotism." We are passing through the benevolent despot stage of corporate development—that is, so far as the despots are benevolent. The imminent social task in this connection is to convert corporate power to the service of benevolent democracy.

I turn to the question: What is the ethical relation between corporations and the state?

This question exposes these economic devices from another angle. In this light they are seen to be properly inventions that deserve social endorsement, in so far as they promote the public weal. There is no more sacredness about a corporation in itself, apart from its service to society, than there is about an ox-yoke or a tide-mill. Charter privileges imply corresponding corporate services; they imply that the party making the grant, as well as the party accepting it, is better off because of the arrangement than before. They imply further, that