Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-15
KNOX ON |H[ TRUSTS
Attorney General Delivers an
Address on the Subject at
Pittsburg
MANY PHASES TO PROBLEM
overcapitalization Cause Of Many Min
or Evils Which Follow in Its Track
What the Government is Doing in
the Way of curbing the Trust
Evil.

/
| evils and abuses in trust promotions
purposes. organizations, methods, man
agement and effects none questions eN-
Icept those who have profited by those
lewis. That all or any of these ABUSES
are to be found in every large organ
ization called a trust no one Wouio
assert who valued his reputation LOT
sane judgment"
These words were among the hrst
spoken by Attorney General T. =. hl'oS
/ in an address on trusts before ehe
chamber of commerce tonight Ihe
remarks Of the chief law officer OF the
national administration We're hs,enes'
Ito with rapt attention by the iaise
nu,nher Of members and noted guests
~ tho organization under whose au-
spices Mr.. Knox spoke.
| The speaker said:
THE conspicuous noXious features "
| trusts, existent and possible, are liiese
Observation-Disclosures lack of publlclty OF
operation, discrimination IN prices ~
destroy competition, insuHlclent per
sonal responsibility of officers ana a.
lrectors for corporate management
tendency to monopoly and lack OF APP
probation in their management OF tnelr
relations to the people, for whose bene-
fit they are permitted to exist.
.Oyercapitalization is the chief cause
of these and the source from which the
minor ones flow. 1t is the possibility
of pitalization that furnishes the
temptations and opportunities for most
OF the others. DISQUALIFICATION does
not mean large capitalization or CAPT.
italiZation adequate for the greatest un-
Idertakings 1t is the imposition upon
an undertaking of a liability without
a corresponding asset to represent 1t
Therefore overcapitalization is fraud
upon those who contribute the real
capital either originally or by purchase.
and the efforts to realize dividends
thereon from operations is fraudu-
lent imposition of burden upon the
public. When property worth Sl,O0O,-
1000 upon all the sober tests or value
lis capitalized at 100000 and sold to
the public, it is rational to assume that
Its purchasers will exert every effort
ito keep it's earnings up to the basis
of their capitalization. When the in
evitable depression comes, wages must
be reduced, prices enhanced or divi-
dends foregone. AS prices are naturally
not increased but lowered in dull per-
iods, it usually resolves itself into Il
question of wages or dividends"
MI! Knox reviewed the cases In the
United States supreme court of the
sugar trust and the Addyston pipe COM
bination, in which the government was
unsuccessful in the first instance and
Successful in the second in prosecutions
under the federal antitrust law. These
cases, the speaker believed, defined II
large measure the law question and
seemed to show the little there is now
left for the statute to operate upon. In
an exhaustive explanation he told how
far the Sherman law went and where
it stopped. The power and duty of
congress to amend this law and en-
large it's scope was touched upon as
follows:
The president said in his first mes
sage that he did not think the au-
thority of congress to protect the peo-
pie against the evils of the trusts had
been exhausted. The views have ex-
pressed are but an amplification Of his.
Public sentiment Is sufficiently
aroused and the situation is sufficiently
grave to call for the effort the president
is making to secure an authoritative
exposition of existing laws and sug-
costing additional ones to the end that
the public mind shall be set at rest and
these economic questions taken from
the domains of controversy and uncer-
tainty."
Mr.. Knox proceeded to relate what
had already been done by the officials
of the department of justice to check
the trusts in what is alleged to be their
illegal operations. ell told of the suits
filed against some of the great railway
systems of the middle west which thru
giving special carrying rates to fav-
ored few enabled these individuals to
control the grain market of that section
of the country. The suits against the
alleged beef trust, the Northern Securi-
ties Company and other combinations
alleged to be operated in restraint of