any more than you ever saw a government. Many a working
man to-day never saw the body of men who are conducting the industry in
which he is employed. And they never saw him. What they know about him
is written in ledgers and books and letters, in the correspondence of
the office, in the reports of the superintendents. He is a long way off
from them.

So what we have to discuss is, not wrongs which individuals
intentionally do--I do not believe there are a great many of those--but
the wrongs of the system. I want to record my protest against any
discussion of this matter which would seem to indicate that there are
bodies of our fellow citizens who are trying to grind us down and do us
injustice. There are some men of that sort. I don't know how they sleep
o' nights, but there are men of that kind. Thank God they are not
numerous. The truth is, we are all caught in a great economic system
which is heartless. The modern corporation is not engaged in business
as an individual. When we deal with it we deal with an impersonal
element, a material piece of society. A modern corporation is a means
of cooperation in the conduct of an enterprise which is so big that no
one can conduct it, and which the resources of no one man are
sufficient to finance. A company is formed; that company puts out a
prospectus; the promoters expect to raise a certain fund as capital
stock. Well, how are they going to raise it? They are going to raise it
from the public in general, some of whom will buy their stock. The
moment that begins, there is formed--what? A joint-stock corporation.
Men begin to pool their earnings, little piles, big piles. A certain
number of men are elected by the stockholders to be directors, and
these directors elect a president. This president is the head of the
undertaking, and the directors are its managers.

Now, do the working men employed by that stock corporation deal with
that president and those directors? Not at all. Does the public deal
with that president and that board of directors? It does not. Can
anybody bring them to account? It is next to impossible to do so. If
you undertake it you will find it a game of hide and seek, with the
objects of your search taking refuge now behind the tree of their
individual personality, now behind that of their corporate
irresponsibility.

And do our laws take note of this curious state of things? Do they even
attempt to distinguish between a man's act as a corporation dir