The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1899-01-11
Street Car Franchises.
TRUSTS AND COMBINES.
Laws Must BE Enacted Which Will Re
strain Monopoly.

Governor Pngree covers the work
ings of trusts and combines in this
country at great length. He says no
period Of our history has witnessed so
rapid and obnoxious growth of trusts
and combines as the few years since
the national congress undertook to re-
strain them. He continues:
There must be remedies. The law
was made for the people. not the people
for the law. We have done greater
things. holder things. before. other
peoples have accomplished reforms
which seemed quite as difficult to the
lawyers and the courts. Without GO
ing back to the time when parliaments.
iinging all law and presidents and sup
posed property rights to the winds.
boldly confiscated the property of the
church and Of the mobiles. when no 9TH
er method sufficed to restore to the peo-
pie their natural heritage Of the soil.
we have notable example in our own
day The soil OF Ireland had fallen
into the hands of less than 10000 per-
sons. A population of 100000 rested
their feet upon the soil OF their an
cestors only at the mercy of a few
landlords. Rents had so fallen that
them. Prices of agricultural products
were so low by reason Of the cheapness
of American foods. that the tenants
could not live and pay the rents such as
they were. Here was a situation more
puZzlng 10 the technical jurist than
our own. A nation was perishing be-
fore the eyes of the world. There was
not a court in Great Britain which did
Hot he In nj I'D haI
to fix the rents of their own lands. II
the tenants could not pay. there was
nothing for them to do but get off the
soil, even it, in doing so. they had to
get off the earth. What could be clearer
than this as matter Of law?
Every court in the United
States would today take the same posi-
ton as those of Great Britain. Did the
British parliament confess it's helpless
ness? No. 1t proceeded to create COM
missions authorized to review the rents
OF Irish lands and fix them at a figure
that would enable the people to live,
even II the landlords persisted This
would be called confiscation In the
United States: and so IL was, but il
saved a nations life.
Constitution Can He Amended.
shall American legislators hesitate
where those OF Great Britain went at
the disease with a knife? l am aware
that the great British parliament Is
not limited in its power by a written
and rigid constitution such as that
which ties the hands of the national
congress and the state legislatures, and
makes the courts. in effect, the real
lawmakers Of this country. But If
technical construction of the constitu-
ton stands in the way. the constitu-
ton can be amended; or. a more sum-
mary method may be adopted by elect
ing and appointing judges who will
construe these instruments according
to the eternal laws Of justice and hu-
mainly. Legislation must address it
self to this supreme duty of the hour,
and find q way through or over tech
nicalities. IL Il does not, there will
some day, ign the not distant future.
come a frigktful awakening. when
courts and legislatures will be swept
aside by a power which has little re-
spect for eithet great people will
not willingly and consciously be guilty
of slow suicide Laws must be enacted
that will restraI monopoly, and these
laws must lie n lorced. or the people.
becoming cGnvN ed that all law 10