If  then  the  privilege  of  land  monopoly  be  destroyed  by
the  process  of  taxation,  if  the  privilege  of  highway  mo-
nopoly be  transferred  to  public  hands,  if  tariff  and  other
taxation  privileges  be  wiped  out,  what  important  privilege
would  remain  for  exploitation  through  incorporation  ?

The  only  possible  use  to  which  an  artificial  person,  or
corporation,  could  be  put  would  be  that  of  engaging  in  the
production  of  wealth  where  there  was  an  open  and  free
field,  where  no  one  had  any  favor.  What  matter  then  if
a  corporation  be  organized  "infinite  in  scope,  perpetual  in
character,  vested  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  with  methods


To  Stop  Taxation  Evils,  Grants  and  Immunities  407

secret  even  to  stockholders"?  Indeed,  it  is  probable
that  in  such  a  state  of  things,  where  none  had  favor,  but
where  all  depended  on  character,  the  character  of  such  a
corporation  would  be  so  out  of  keeping  with  the  openness
and  fairness  of  industrial  and  commercial  and  banking
pursuits  as  to  raise  suspicion  and  prove  a  disadvantage.
The  privileges  which  now  attract  then  being  gone,  the
company  so  incorporated  would  appear  to  be  badly  handi-
capped.
Whether  or  not  this  would  be  the  popular  attitude,  it  is
clear  that  with  other  privileges  now  emanating  from  Gov-
ernment destroyed  or  withdrawn  from  private  hands,  the
task  of  contracting  the  limits  of  the  statutes  for  incorpora-
tion would  be  simple,  and  would  probably  meet  with  little
or  no  opposition.  What  those  limits  should  be  seems  to
be  suggested  by  the  earlier  special  incorporation  acts,
when  privileges  in  this  country  were  neither  many  nor
strong.  The  new  act,  however,  should  be  modified  in
such  ways  as  three  quarters  of  a  century  of  advance  in
population  and  wealth  may  appear  to  make  necessary.
