CALL THE ROLL ON CORPORATIONS
Casson, Herbert N.
Call the Roll on Corporations By HERBERT N. CASSON A FOOLHARDY corporation that defies the will of the public is like the rabbit that got drunk and spat in the bulldog's face. The public is the...
...Why not CALL THE ROLL ON CORPORATIONS...
...It will never permit the strongest members of the national family to be petted and pampered as though they were babies in the cradle...
...It always has been the Boss, whenever it wanted to be...
...When the public learns to quit baiting all corporations indiscriminately, and when the corporations learn to play fair and be sociable, there will come an era of peace and good-will that will result in such prosperity as we have never known...
...For instance, in some localities it was a punishable offense to go in a forest with an unprotected light or fire...
...A new forest law that went into effect in Saxony last year punishes with a fine not exceeding 60 marks ($14.28), or with imprisonment not exceeding two weeks, whoever shall enter a forest or go near one with unguarded fire or light in a manner involving risk...
...Kansas City Times...
...The estimated cost of the plant is $11,909,100 for the development of 100,000 horsepower...
...It is even inclined to be proud of an immense and well-handled company...
...But it will never allow a big corporation to bully and swagger and dominate...
...In commenting on this law a Saxon jurist calls attention to the fact that carelessness in handling fire and light in state forest reservations has heretofore been largely controlled by local police regulations...
...It always will be the Boss...
...It is now made conditional in Saxony that such an unprotected light or fire be handled in a manner involving risk, in order to render a person liable to punishment...
...It has no objection to the size of a corporation...
...Throwing burning cigar ends and matches on the dry ground of a forest is contrary to law...
...That is the Big Fact of history and of the present political situation...
...Besides, as the whole country is very thickly populated, any fire breaking out would be promptly combated by a veritable army of men...
...Thus is the farmer brought more closely in touch with the world and his lot bettered by being supplied with cheap power by his government.—Kansas Farmer...
...It was found advisable in order to prevent forest fires and the enormous damage attendant therewith to enact severer penalties than could be applied by subordinate police...
...A fine not exceeding 60 marks, or imprisonment not exceeding two weeks, will be inflicted on whoever shall fail to render assistance at forest fires when called upon by the police authorities or the forest owners or their representatives, if such summons can be complied with without serious disadvantage...
...It ought to prove easy to dissolve a sugar trust...
...Furthermore, a uniform law was desirable...
...whoever shall drop, throw away, or carelessly handle in a forest or in dangerous proximity thereto any burning or glowing object...
...There is no inevitable war between the corporations and the public...
...When we attack a decent corporation, we prevent others from becoming decent...
...This power will be sold by the provincial government to trolley lines, manufacturing plants and farmers...
...The old days of secrecy and tricks and I-can-do-what-I-like-with-my-own-property, are gone...
...and whoever, unauthorized, shall light a fire in a forest or in dangerous proximity thereto, or whoever shall fail to watch carefully and put out a fire that has been started in a permissible manner...
...We demand a far higher standard of conduct, for instance, from an elephant than we do from a canary-bird...
...How about it...
...Nobody can pitch his private tent on the public highway...
...STATE SELLS ELECTRIC POWER THE Province of Ontario, Canada, has undertaken to generate and sell electricity for light and power purposes over a territory that is about 300 miles long by 60 miles wide...
...The German federal law provides that a fine up to 150 mark* ($35.70), or adequate imprisonment, shall be inflicted on whoever will not assist when called upon by the police authorities or their representatives in extinguishing forest fires...
...How Saxony Prevents Forest Fires From Consul CARL BAILEY HURST, Plauen, Germany THE SURPRISING RARITY of forest lW in Saxony, where one-fourth of the total area of the kingdom is wooded, may be attributed to the constant care ^iven to clearing out dead timber and underbrush, a force of vigilant forest guards, and a strict observance of the state laws and local regulations for the prevention of such fires...
...The public admires efficiency...
...Accordingly, the present law permits smoking except when it involves danger of fire...
...It is not incumbent on a judge, in hearing cases where noncompliance to assist is charged, to determine whether the help demanded was either suitable or necessary...
...To dodge and quibble and bluster can do nothing more than to delay and increase the punishment...
...In considering what constitutes danger cf fire one is cautioned in this vicinity to take into account the season of the year, dryness, the velocity of the wind, condition and covering of the ground of the forest, and other circumstances thai would tend to justify an apprehension of fire...
...Impudence and haughtiness are forgivable in a small corporation, but not in a large one...
...The original investment in the power plant at Niagara Falls is a heavy one, but as this is shared by the several towns of the territory, and as the expense of operation will be very small, it need not become a burden...
...It believes in the value of organization...
...Nobody can do what he likes...
...As for the corporations that are acting sensibly, it is as necessary for us to protect them from injustice as it is for us to punish the others...
...The experience of the state forest supervisor has shown that there is no necessity for a sweeping prohibition against smoking and permitting only the use of covered pipes...
...We are all jumbled up together in these Unites States, and U. S. stands for us...
...A Saxon village regulation of one hundred and thirty-five year ago, still applicable in this consular district, directs that when a fire breaks out from lightning, negligence in handling fire, but more especially from careless tobacco smoking, or from any other cause, in forests or woods, then, in such eases, all inhabitants of the nearest hamlets or villages, in addition to the regular hunting and forest employees, arc oH;»rd to assemble at once at the scene of the conflagration with axes, hatchet., mattocks, shovels, and the like to fight the flames, by chopping and felling trees, digging and throwing up the necessary trenches how and where may be best...
...It is held that there is no danger of fire from smoking on roads in the forest in wet seasons or during snow or rain or shortly thereafter...
...And those corporations that have the bulk of giants and the manners of newsboys, have got to get rid of either the bulk or the manners...
...In fact, what we need just at this stage, as a practical guide to good citizenship, is a WHITE LIST of corporations that are really trying to be useful and honest and polite, and a BLACK LIST of corporations that are stubbornly defying and resisting the authority of the public...
...No matter how rich, or how poor, we are, we have got to play fair and be friendly or get ruled out of the game...
...The bigger and richer a corporation is, the better it must behave...
...The public is the Boss...
...Nobody can flout and despise his neighbors...
...Restriction on Tobacco Smoking THERE was also a difference in treating the question of tobacco smoking in forests...
Vol. 2 • October 1910 • No. 41
