Summary |
The business corporation was among the most important of these alternatives to the state. Originally an agency of the government, it slowly achieved independence of political control and established its private character. By the end of the nineteenth century it was an autonomous institution governed by its own stockholders and their elected officers and subject only to general regulation by law. The nineteenth century expansion of the American economy gave many such corporations enormous power. The necessity of confining that power to socially acceptable uses while still leaving the corporation free within the areas of its own competence became one of the continuing issues of American policy. The accumulation of power in institutions that were defined as private was tolerable only when qualified by the assurance that they would not serve as a means of establishing the dominance of those who controlled them.
The history of the great life insurance enterprises that took form during the last quarter of the nineteenth century dramatically exemplified these tendencies. These corporations performed a vital function in the life of an urban, industrial society. They grew rapidly in strength and amassed enormous resources, for the nature of their business made them custodians of the savings of millions of people. The very magnitude of their strength raised serious questions about the place in a free society of private institutions that served a public purpose.
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