The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-26
Leads all North Carolina Dailies i'm News and Circulate

Attorney General took action against a
certain trus. There has been consider
able talk as to whether the trust aimed
at would not seek to get out from under
a single corporation.
II want laws to enable us to deal with
it, no matter what shape it takes | want
to see the government able to get at it
definitely so that the action of the gov
ernment cannot be evaded by any turn
ing, within or without Federal or State
statutes. At present we have really no
efficient control over a big corporation
which does business in more than one
State. Frequently the corporation has
nothing whatever to do with the State in
which it is incorporated except to get
incorporated and it's actions may be ta-
ken in entirely different communities
communities which may object very much
TO the methods of incorporation in the
State named. I do not think you can
get action by any State, action by all
the States, that will give us satisfactory
control of the trusts or big corporations,
and the result is at present that we have
a great, powerful, artificial creation
which has no creator to which it is re-
sponsible
''Of course, it is mere truism that
the corporation is the creature of the
State; that the State is sovereign. Now,
l want to make a real and not a nomi-
nal sovereign; to have some one sover-
eign to which the corporation shall be
really, and not nominally responsible.
What hope to see is power given to
the national legislature which shall make
the control real. 1t would be an excel
lent thing if we could have all the States
ect on somewhat similar lines, so that
it would be unnecessary for the national
government to act, but all of you know
perfectly we'll the States will not act
on somewhat similar lines.
Nothing has been done in the direction
of intelligent dealing by the States as
collective body with these great cor
porations. Here in Massachusetts you
have what / regard as a whole, excellent
corporation laws. l think that most of
our dificulties-here again remember l
am not promising the millenium-it is
rot in my power to promise it-would be
in a fair way of solution if we had the
power to put on the national statute
books and did put on them, laws for the
nation much like those you have here, on
the subject of corporations in Massachu-
setts.
$50 you can see, gentlemen, I am not
advocating anything very revolutionary.
am advocating action to prevent any
thing revolutionary. Now. if we can get
adequate control by the nation of these
corporations then we can pass legisla-
tion which will give us the power of regu-
lation and supervision over them. If the
ration had that power, mind you, I
should advocate as strenuously as / know
how that power should be exercised with
extreme caution and self-restraint. No
good viii come from plunging in without
having looked carefully ahead.
''The first thing we want is publicity
ard I do not mean publicity as favor
by some corporations. 1 mean it as a
right from all corporations affected by
law. l want publicity as to the essen
tial facts IN which The public has an in
test. l want the knowledge given TO the
accredited representatives of the people
of facts on which these representatives
if they see fit, base their actions later.
The publicity itself would cure many
evils. Some of these things l have said
can be done now. A good deal is being
done now.
GAS far as the antitrust laws go they
will be enforced. No suit will be under
taken for the sake of seeming to under
stand it. Every suit that is undertaken
will be begun because the great lawyer
and upright man whom we are so for
tunate as to have as Attorney General,
Mr. Knox, believes taht there is a vio-
lation of the law which we can get at,
and when the suit is undertaken it won't
be compromised excepting on the basis
that the government wins.
"Then ] believe l am not going so say
am sure, but | believe it is possible
to frame national legislation which shall
give us more power than we have now,
at any rate, over corporations doing an
inter tate business. I cannot guarantee
that, because in the past it has more
than once happened that we have got
laws on the statute books which those
who made them intended to mean one
thing and when they came up to decision
it was found that the intention had not
been successfully put into effect. But /
believe that additional legislation can be
had. l think we have got to- make up
our minds to the fact that no matter
what our reverence to the past may be-
our duty to the present and to the future
will force us to see that more power is
conferred upon the national administra-
tion."