GOVERNOR, 1903
without my personal knowledge of their contents. While Woodrow Wilson, as governor, was stumping through the West denouncing the methods of the Standard Oil Company, chartered in New Jersey, no doubt other charters granting like powers were being issued at Trenton. The world would be ever so much better if we could only succeed in prevailing upon each man to attend to his own duties and look after his own conduct. And now, after having, along with some moralizing, indicated the groundwork upon which the structure was to be built, let the narrative proceed.
Strange to relate, my first struggle against opposing forces was with my old friends, the corporation lawyers. All of the trouble in this country over the corporations—and much of it has been the hullabaloo of persons eager to catch the ear of the populace in order to help their own fortunes—has arisen because those who had charge of the granting of their powers were careless and indifferent. This is the point at which the correcting agency ought to be applied. Complaint afterward is feeble and apt to be futile. It had become the habit at Harrisburg, as elsewhere, for charters to be issued as a matter of course, and they were supervised in the outer office. It is even said that a clerk was trained to imitate the signature and add the approval of the governor. Every charter which went out during my four years had my actual approval and bears my autograph. It had been the custom for the lawyer, in drafting the grant of power, to use the general words of the statute. I required that the objects be defined and saw to it that the constitutional provision that no two different purposes should be included, was carried into effect. On one occasion an application was made for the right to make and sell explosives in perpetuity. The danger of such a grant can readily be seen. It was refused until the time was limited to twenty-five years. The statute required that ten per cent of the capital stock should be paid into the treasury of the corporation. It had come to be the practice to take out charters
