a 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, an immaterial piece of
society. A modern corporation is a means of co-operation in the conduct of
an enterprise which is so big that no one man 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 workingmen 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 director and