BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-10-25
SAN JUAN, OCTOBER Is
Attorney General
Knox On Trusts.

The speech made by Attorney &C.
neray Knox at Pittsburgh on the
subject of the Constitutional powers
of Congress in dealing with Trusts is
important, 10th as it serves to explain
the vie rs and purposes of the Admi-
nlstration, and as it supplies the OPT
Mons of lawyer of the first rank on
the class of questions at issue. These
questions, as Mr.. Knox divides them
are four in number, or, perhaps, we
should say there are four phases of the
one main question, How shall society
protect itself against the evils of those
modern monopolies commonly called
Trusts? Mr.. Knox properly supplies a
definition of these evils, or of the more
obvious ones. They are "over,capita-
lization, lack of publicity of operation,
discrimination in prices to destroy COM
petition, insufficient personal response
b;lity of officers and directors for cor
porate management, tendency to mono
poly, and lack OF apPreciatioas to the
people, for whose benefit they are per
mitted to e Iist."
He considers over-capitalization the
chief of the evils, and tue source from
which the lesser ones f1)N. The pro-
moters and the syndicates take advan-
tage OF the speculative tendencies and
the ignorance of the public to consoli-
date companies, put out three or four
dollars OF stock for each dollar of real
capital inves.ed sell the shares on the
market, aud begin again with some
other ind1 .stry. Fhe overcapitalizatlon
makes it necessary to keep prices fc
titiousy high, and wages fctitiously
lov. The bubble thus blown is likely
to b1rst, and then the ignorant investor
Is exposed to loss.
Tho power thus gained by the Trust
is used in unfair wa S. Prices are PIT
up and put dowl arbitrarily in order to
destroy weaker concerns and to preser-
We the monopoly. Busi ess becomes
spasmodic where it should be regular.
The public, both as investors and as
cons lmcrs, are at the mercy of the
Trust Tne principles of the common
Law, which run against non opolizers
and fores, alters, are frustrated and nett
tralzed. The seeds of panic are sown
broadcast, and, when it comes, the
disaster is not restricted to those who
have bought shares in the Trust, but
atflcs the entire community. 1t may
be said the investor is a rational being;
that he has right to do what be likes
with his Own money; that every man
must look out for himself, and that any
attempt of the Government to direct his
investments is Il Use paternalisln. The
same MAJ be said il behalf of policy
shops or any other fern OF gambling.
After enumerating the evils of this
class OF monopolieS and of existing leg
islation applicab'e to them, the Attor-
ne General ii ks the question =" May
not Congress, under the existing Cons
titu.ion ameLd and extend the law
and thus remedy its detects ard so
effectively regulate national and foreign
commerce as to prevent the sitting of
competition, the regulating of output
and price, and the restraining of nation
al and international trader This qles-
tion, he ans gers t'unhesitatingly in the
affirmative. In other words he thinks
that Constitutional amendment is not
HECGSSdIY ~ dCdl CllCStltOlf Will
Trusts. This, we may assume, is the
answer of President Roosevelt to the
question raised by. himself in his recent
speaking tour, for it is not to be sup
posed that the Acknowledgement made
his speech at Pittsburg without the
concurrence OF his chief.
Mr.. Knox next narrates some facts
of great interest touching violations of
the Interstate Commerce Law. /! was
made known last February that some
extraordinary offences had been discover
ed in the grain trade at Chicago and
Kansas City; whereby the entire par
pose and object Of this law has been
frustra,ed aud that when the Attorney
Generals office took cognizance of the
mater the evils ceased and the often
ders promised never to do so any more.
Mr.. Knox now tells US in the following
words what these evils were:
In the early part of this year it came
to the knowledge of the President tha,
great railway systems ii the Middle
West, upon which every section of the
country is dependent for the movement
of brea1stuffs, had entered into urlaw..
flll agreements 10 transport the ship
ments Of afew favored gra n buyers al
rate; mitch below the tariff charges
imposed upon small dealers and tts /
general pubic. This injustice prevail /
ed to stleh an extentzand for SO long
a tine that most of the smaller shippers
had been driven from the field, and the
ousluessss offnerIg enjoyed BY rem ali
'orbsd By q linlie number Of persons,