Page:The fallacy of danger from great wealth.djvu/31

Rh has brought upon the wage-earners and producers and consumers of the entire country, and the end is not yet. Moreover, what the railroad commissions "save" the shippers is not a saving in any proper sense, but a transfer from one person to another. It adds no wealth or wages to the community, as does increased efficiency of labor from construction of new railroads and improvement of old ones.

Notwithstanding the government control of railroads, interest on bonds and some dividends on stocks are still paid to the holders. Anything short of this would be confiscation. But there is a deeper question than merely getting interest on bonds and dividends on stock (which dividends, by the way, are now rather uncertain, not guaranteed by the government which is in control, and in most instances not above interest rates, and with little hope of increase in the future). The greatest motive for a wealthy man to start a big business is his ability to create and control it. The business is his creature, his pet, his hobby. If, now, control is to be taken away from him and vested in any Tom, Dick, or Harry who may by appeal to the dear people get himself elected to office, where is there any longer