The question of the control of corporations by the government is substantially the question of the control of business by the government, since the most important business is now carried on by corporate organizations. How far it is desirable that the state should control business is a question regarding which there is a countless variety of views. Nothing is more obvious, however, than the fact that there is a strong popular demand for extension of the control of business, especially of corporate business, by both state and national governments. The reason for this demand is apparent. It is a political axiom that the power of the sovereign must be greater than the power of any subject, otherwise the subject in his turn becomes the sovereign. It is apparent, however, from any historical observation that the nearer a subject approaches to the sovereign in power, the less stable becomes the political equilibrium.