y innocent. Two wrongs can never make a right,
and wherever we find a so-called reform that is based upon injustice be
assured that we are only substituting one evil for another and that our
latter end shall be worse than the first. It would be impossible for one
now to indicate the direction in which reforms should lie, and there is
of course nothing human to which reform is impossible. But it is perhaps
suitable that I should indicate some of the ways that can end in nothing
but calamity, however alluringly and speciously they may be advocated.
For example, there is neither good sense nor honesty in penalizing a
corporation because some of its officials have done wrong. Wherever
wrong has been done, the guilt is with some individual and not with
the corporation as a whole. Find out who that individual is and let
him answer to the law, but do not visit his misdeeds upon innocent
stockholders who have had nothing whatever to do with the offense,
who knew nothing of its commission and could have done nothing to
prevent it if they had known. Remember, that a penalty inflicted upon
a corporation is actually inflicted not upon guilty persons but upon
innocent investors.

Let me give an illustration of the so-called "reforms" that are
recklessly urged upon us to-day and that are to be found in operation
here and there throughout the country. I refer to the matter of street
franchises. Now it may be true, it probably is true, that in many cases
these franchises have become of great value and that they ought not to
be granted without adequate return. But would it not be just to remember
that when these franchises were originally granted they provided a
service that was absolutely essential to the growth of the community and
that those who obtained the franchises faced a serious risk to their
capital and practically threw in their lot with the prospective welfare
of the city? It is hard to realize how serious that risk sometimes was
and how problematical were the returns. The shareholders in these street
traction corporations are spread over the population and every class of
the population is represented in them. They invested their money in good
faith at a time when no question had ever been raised as to the
propriety of these franchises and at a time when these franchises were
considered to be for the public good and indubitably were for the public
good. And I will ask you if it is honest to use all the machinery of
the gover