The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1901-12-06
PUBLICITY NEEDED.
This Is the First Essential in Deal
ing With Trusts.

The first essential In determining how to
deal with the great industrial comblna-
tons is knowledge of the facts-publicity.
In the interest of the public the govern
ment should nave the right to inspect and
the workings of the great cor
porations engaged in interstate business.
Publicity is the only sure remedy which
we can now invoke. What further rene
dies are needed in the way of govern
mental regulation or taxation can only be
determined after publicity has been OBJ
tanned by process of law and in the course
of administration
q The first requisite is knowledge, =
q full and complete-knowledge which .
. may be made public to the world.
Artificial bodies, such as corporations
and joint stock or other associations de-
pending upon any statutory law for their
existence or privileges, should be subject
to proper governmental supervision, and
full and accurate information as to their
operations should be made public regu-
larly at reasonable intervals.
The large corporations, commonly
called trusts, though organized in one
state, always do business in many states,
often doing very little business in the
state where they are incorporated. There
is utter lack of uniformity in the state
laws about them, and as no state has any
exclusive interest in or power over their
acts it has in practice proved impossible
to get adequate legislation through state
action.
Therefore, in the interest of the .
= whole people, the nation should, .
q without interfering with the power Q
= of the states in the matter itself, Q
. also assume power Of supervision q
. and regulation over a. corporations q
. doing an interstate business. Q
49,
This Is especially true where the cor
poration derives a portion Of it's wealth
from the existence of some monopolistic
element or tendency in it's business. There
would be no hardship in such supervision.
Banks are subject to it, and in their
case it is now accepted as a simple mat
ter of course. Indeed it is probable that
supervision of corporations by the ma
tional government need not go SO far as
Is now the case with the supervision ex-
ercised over them by so conservative a
state as Massachusetts in order to pro-
duce excellent results.
When the Constitution was adopted, at
the end of the eighteenth century, no hu-
man wisdom could ~foretell the sweeping
changes. alike in industrial and political
conditions, which were to take place by
the beginning of the twentieth century.
At that time 1t was accepted as a matter
OF course that the several states were the
proper authorities to regulate so far as
was then necessary the comparatively in
significant and strictly localized corporate
bodies of the day. The conditions are
now wholly different, and wholly differ
emit action is called for. l believe that
q law can be framed which will enable
the national government to exercise con-
troll along the lines above indicated, prof
iting by the experience gained through
the passage and administration of the
interstate m act.
80
. II, however, the judgment of the .
. congress is that it lacks the consti- Q
. tutional power to pass such an act, Q
= then a. constitutional amendment q
q should be submitted to confer the .
q power.
There should be created a cabinet Off
Ger to be known as secretary Of COM
merce and industries, as provided in the
bill introduced at the last session of the
congress. 1t should be his province to
deal with in its broadest sense.
including, among many other things,
whatever concerns labor, and all matters
anecting the great business corporations
n our merchant marine.
The course proposed is one phase of
what should be a comprehensive and far
reaching scheme of constructive states
E,anship for the purpose of broadening
our markets, securing our business inter-
ests on a safe basis and making firm our
new position in the international indus
trial world, while scrupulously safeguard
ing the rights of wageworker and cant
talist, of investor and private citizen. go
as to secure equity as between man and
man in this epublic.