The San Francisco call., 1899-09-13
ADJUSTMENTS.
THE ANTITRUST CONVENTION.

= OVERNOR SAVERS of Texas, who issued
I the invitation to the Governors and Attorneys
- General OF the various States and Territories
TO attend a convention in St. Louis for the purpose
OF devising uniform legislation for the suppression OF
trusts is reported to be we'll pleased with the sup
port given to the movement II such be the the
Governor is easily pleased, for while the invitation
was sent out months ago and the time for holding
the convention is drawing near the Governors OF but
eleven States besides his and but Attorneys
General have promised to attend is true that ten
other Governors have expressed a willingness to be
present il their duties permit but such expressions
are hardly than polite methods of declining the
invitation The convention therefore will fall long
way short of representing all the States Of the Union
1t is notable moreover that the Governors who
have promised to attend nearly all OF them
Democrats The only Republicans OF note among
them are Pingree of Michigan and Tanner OF Illinois,
and neither OF these is representative OF genuine
Repubhcanisrn. Pingree is something Of political
freak having almost as many vagaries as Popu-
list and being confirmed believer in many Of the
doctrines OF state socialism. Tanner is not much
wiser and certainly does not represent the conser
vative common sense of his State or OF his party.
When the convention assemblies it will find itself
handicapped at the start for the Governors and At
torneys General OF twelve States and one or two
that will be binding upon all the States The meet
ing will hardly do more than give utterance to the
vague discontents existing among a considerable
portion of the people concerning trusts 1t may pos
sibly adopt set of very strongly worded resolutions
but strong words will not stop the organization OF
trusts nor even lead any comprehensive legislation
against them.
The futility Of the proposed convention is newt
a = because of the lack at this time OF sufficient ex
perence with trusts to determine wherein they are
good and wherein they harmful. Until the true
nature and the full extent of the problems are known
il will not be possible to determine whether such
evils as exist can be best remedied by State egisla-
ton or by action of the National Government
At the recent meeting OF the American Bar Asso-
CATION Edward Q. Keasbey read paper on New
Jersey and the Great Corporations in the of
which he dealt with some OF the evils of the huge
trusts and combinations which have been lately in
corporated in that State He pointed out that be-
tween January and August OF this year there have
been organized in New Jersey alone 1896 corpora
tions having an authorized capital OF two thou
sand millions OF dollars. Alter giving a strong
presentation of the evil of such combinations many
of which are hardly more than huge gambling
schemes Mr. Keasbey virtually admitted that he did
not know how the evil could be remedied.
The issue is that must be dealt with in the
future but no safe guidance be expected from an
antitrust convention called by who preju-
diced at the start and who meet with the avowed OBJ
ect of suppressing trusts altogether From the Civic
Federation Conference on the subject, be held in
Chicago, much good may be expected, but from the
St Louis meeting of few Governors, most of whom
are hardly more than second rate politicians it is
not likely that anything will result of benefit to the
country