The Harvester World: Volume 1, number 8, May 1910

              Government Control
An extract from a speech delivered by C. S. Funk, General Manager, before tbe Menasha Club of Menasha, Wis, Mr. Funk, after summarizing the present situation in regard to corporations and giving a brief outline of the problem both the corporation and the government must solve, concluded as follows:
WHEN the laws are harmonized and adjusted so that it is possible (or a corpora¬ tion to know what is the law, a great deal of trouble will be eliminated. This is why I say the states and the national government have much to do before this problem can be worked out. The corporations cannot work it out alone. Some corporations would like to, others are not quite so particular, but our government can work it out, and our government must work it out, but along sound, broad lines—not in the heat of passion, not with the idea of destroying property, not by attempting to destroy that which has been built up by sheer force of energy and domination, but with due regard for the rights of corporations and stockholders, and above all, with due regard for the interests of the great mass of people.
Now, to my mind, there is good ground for hope in all this agitation. That may be a rather peculiar thing to say, but it's perfectly logical. The people of our conntry have had it forced upon their mind again and again that they have a great problem to solve. They have solved greater problems than this, and they have solved them rightly. They will solve this one rightly, but the condition precedent to the solution of this question is to understand it fully in all its bearings. We must have better men in office. The corpora¬ tions cannot bring that about, but the people can bring it about by insisting on high- character men in high places. There must be laws broad enough and strong enough to bring the change about.    These laws must be executed by men fearless and incorruptible.
So my conclusion of the whole matter is that the great corporations are here to stay; that the people also are here to stay; that the government must control the corporations; that the people must control the government, and they must do it better than they have ever done it. And so the final issue is with the best class of our citizenship; the great mass of the so-called common people, who being neither rich nor poor, and with a strong sense of justice and fair play, will always hold the balance between corporate wealth and greed on the one hand and destructive class prejudice and hatred on the other, seeing to it that the corporations shall obey the reasonable and just laws of the country, and that in so doing they shall have the same protection and fair treatment that is guaranteed to each of our citizens; that they shall have exact justice, no more and no less, however powerful they maybe. [