The record-union., 1899-09-06
BRYAN ON TRUSTS.
Proposal to Override State Rights
in an Alarming Manner.

A dispatch from Tipton, Mo-, gives
the substance of an interview had there
with William ]. Bryan, in which he
suggests new method of dealing with
the trusts. 1t eontemplates their pre-
Ventlon by means of a national license
law. The idea is, according to the
dispatch, that,
This license it is said, must be issued
under such conditions as to make mo-
nopoly impossible Stock watering by
corporations must be forbidden and
their capital limited. 1T would be
such an easy matter then to regulate
their capitalization and business that
monopolization would be impossible
Mr.. Bryan is credited with the state
ment that the States cannot handle
/ the trust question, and that hence the
/ Federal Government must take 1T up
and settle it.
| The Government should say that no
corporation should do business in any
| State in which it was not incorporated
except under the license issued by the
Federal authorities. This license
should be posted in the trusts plant IN
conspicuous place and kept theIc.
and it should be a penitentiary offense
poration not having such a license or
for a corporation to run in any state
save the one wherein it is incorporated
without this license.
The brief summary of the interview
does not say that Mr.. Bryan recon-
mends the adoption of a constitutional
amendment giving to Congress the
power to enact the national license law
which he proposes for the suppression
/ of trusts. The Constitution. as IT
stands. however, does not give the FED
eral Government power to say that a
corporation incorporated in Illinois,
/ for instance, shall not do business IN
| Indiana or Wisconsin without comply
| ing with certain requirements imposed
| by the Federal Government. If Mr..
Bryan is of the opinion that that can
| be done, he is much more lax con-
structionist of the Constitution than he
was a few years ago when he denied
| the constitutionality of protective tariff
| laws
| A State can say that a corporation
created by another State shall not do
| business within it's confines unless 1t
complies with conditions the State sees
fft to impose The Constitution reads
that "the citizens of each State shall
| be entitled to all privileges and i'm
munities Of citizens in the several
! States.'' Therefore a citizen of New
York selling goods in Pennsylvania
cannot be charged a higher license fee
! than a Pennsylvania who is in the
same business has to pay. But cor
poration is not a Citizen" Therefore a
/ State can discriminate against outside
corporations in favor of those it has in
| corporated, and as a matter of course it
can forbid corporations which are doing
what it is unlawful for its own cor
| porations to do to carry on business in
! the State
But where is the clause in the Con-
stitution which empowers Congress to
/ set forth the terms on which a New
York or a New Jersey corporation shall
be allowed to do business in Illinois.
THE power to regulate commerce
among the several States involves the
power to regulate the agencies-ra
roads and steamboat lines-carrying on
| that commerce. 1t does not involve
the power to regulate corporations
manufacturing the goods which may be
the subjects of that commerce. That
the power to enact a national license
law could be used to good purpose if it
existed will not be denied, but the Con-
stitution has to be construed with vio-
! lence in order to discover in It such a
| pOwer-Chicago Tribune