The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-29
HENDERSON ON TRUSTS
Annual Address Before the Bar
Association.
THERE'S NAUGHT OF EVIL
When Honestly Capitalized and Man
aged-The Wrongs That Demand
Remedy-Warning Against
Demagogues.

Buffalo, N. Y, Aug. 2S.-Judges,
statesmen and men of national promi-
nence composing the American Bar as
ISOLATION met in the aldermanic cham
Der of the common council to-day, and
We're welcomed to the city by Sherman
5. Rogers of the local bar association
and Walter S. Logan of the state bar
association. In the absence of Presi-
dent Choate, ambassador to the court
of st. James, Senator Henderson of
Nebraska, as acting president, deliv-
cred the annual address.
After discussing the administrations
Philippine policy and the results of the
peace congress, Mr.. Henderson said:
THE problems, legal and political,
that are the most absorbingly import
ant and likely to lead to far-reaching
results In law-making and statute con-
structlon, are those incident to so-called
trusts, pools and combinations in man
ufacture, commerce and trade. The
legislative difficulty seems to be to draw
the line that should divide the objec-
tlonable trust or monopoly that defies
the natural laws of trade. from the de-
slrable corporation or the concentration
of capital productive of good result
10 strike down the one and not cripple
the other is no easy task for the law
maker. Concentration is the order of
the day. Industries of Importance and
enterprises of magnitude can only be
carried ON with success by bringing to-
gether that aggregation of capital and
limitation of personal liability permits
sible in the creation called a corpora
ton. This artificial person has accomp-
lished. in the gathering of the raw ma
c tIA -tn \, 10
the making from them in shop, mill and
factory, articles of use or ornament;
the gathering of them in mart store
ana warehouse to vend to the consumer
and the distribution of them by the nu-
merous channels on water and land
more of substantial advantage to man
Kind than any other instrumentality
The century now closing has seen dur
ing its hundred years an advance on all
lines of production, with corresponding
benefit to the consumer, such as has
been afforded at no other period in the
worlds history. Corporations that have
for their purpose a lettering of meth
DDS OF manufacture, sale or distribu-
ton; the cheapening of the making of
the article produced; the improvement
in the style or convenience of the fin
ished product; the economy in it's vend-
ing or transportation, are a great good
to mankind, and in them, legally con-
Quoted, there is naught of evil to our
race No more disastrous calamity
could befall this republic, that largely
by such concentration of capital with
the safeguards thrown about the invest
ment, has Kept for itself its own SPLEEN
did market, and is now capturing the
markets of the world, than a blow ad-
ministered, either by statute or de-
cison, destructive of those corporate
interests that are honestly capitalized,
fairly based and legitimately managed.
Viewing the work of the law makers
and the courts, one cannot but feel
some alarm at the drift of both, while
realizing that the action of many of the
corporate creatures made by the law
are such as to demand as to them that
a halt should be called and their ag-
gressive advances cease, even if their
destruction must be ordained to stop
them in. their career. The fear is that
we may go to extremes, and that in
wiping out the iniquitous trusts we may
destroy the legitimate corporations.
The public mind is excited by the yell
low tinged articles of a partisan trust
and the loud mouthings of blatant poll
ticians, seeking simply party advantage
and the keeping of power, or the gain
ing of patronage to be dispensed. In
platforms parties Win vie with each
other in denunciation of trusts and
combinations and with meaningless
phrases. full of sound and fury seek
to capture the votes of the groundlings.
The evils that exist cannot thus be
remedied. Laws framed in haste that
are designed to obtain political advan-
tage, or are based upon popular cutlery.
or unreasoning prejudice, come usually
to plague and torment their inventors.
Adam Smith is right in saying that
the occasions on which a government
can help or intervene are a certain we'll
defined province of action accepted, ex-
ceedingly rare and aught to be looked
on with the gravest suspicion and per-
mitted with the greatest hesitation
That evils exist that need legislative
correction cannot be gainsayed. over
or fictitious capitalization monopolistic
tendencies leading to the destruction of
fair competition, the decrease of pro-
ducing cost with advance of the price
to the consumer, are wrongs demand
ing remedy; but the cor
receive cannot be safely applied
when unreasoning denunciation furi-
Gus hostility and desire for partisan
gain, rule the legislative mind, and
trucking to popular cutlery sways the
judicial decision,
Nearly all the states have what are
termed antitrust laws, and in them the
term trust has received much enlarged
definition. We recall when the term
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