espect to their government, and that it is the
duty of every public officer to explain to his fellow-citizens whenever he
gets a chance,--explain exactly what is going on inside of his own office.

There is no air so wholesome as the air of utter publicity.

* * * * *

There are other tracts of modern life where jungles have grown up that
must be cut down. Take, for example, the entirely illegitimate extensions
made of the idea of private property for the benefit of modern
corporations and trusts. A modern joint stock corporation cannot in any
proper sense be said to base its rights and powers upon the principles of
private property. Its powers are wholly derived from legislation. It
possesses them for the convenience of business at the sufferance of the
public. Its stock is widely owned, passes from hand to hand, brings
multitudes of men into its shifting partnerships and connects it with the
interests and the investments of whole communities. It is a segment of the
public; bears no analogy to a partnership or to the processes by which
private property is safeguarded and managed, and should not be suffered to
afford any covert whatever to those who are managing it. Its management is
of public and general concern, is in a very proper sense everybody's
business. The business of many of those corporations which we call
public-service corporations, and which are indispensable to our daily
lives and serve us with transportation and light and water and
power,--their business, for instance, is clearly public business; and,
therefore, we can and must penetrate their affairs by the light of
examination and discussion.

In New Jersey the people have realized this for a long time, and a year or
two ago we got our ideas on the subject enacted into legislation. The
corporations involved opposed the legislation with all their might. They
talked about ruin,--and I really believe they did think they would be
somewhat injured. But they have not been. And I hear I cannot tell you how
many men in New Jersey say: "Governor, we were opposed to you; we did not
believe in the things you wanted to do, but now that you have done them,
we take off our hats. That was the thing to do, it did not hurt us a bit;
it just put us on a normal footing; it took away suspicion from our
business." New Jersey, having taken the cold plunge, cries out to the rest
of the states, "Come on in! The water's fine!" I wonder whether