The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-10-21
LIES WITH CONGRESS-
Attorney General Knox Tells How
to Control Trusts.
Points Out Some of the Evils of Com
bfnes and Proposes Various Meth
DDS of Supervixion-Snfety in
Common Law,


Commerce Clause of the Constitution
and the Trusts" before the Pittsburg
chamber of commerce Tuesday night,
October IA, Attorney General Z. c.
Knox declared that the power to regu
late trusts lies with congress. The
further power, he maintained, rests in
the common law, which he said was al
ways jealous of monopolies of public
necessities in any form. Mr.. Knox
spoke as follows:
Great combinations CT capital, now num-
boring thousands, are the irstrumentalltieS
of modern commercial activity. Their num-
Der and size alone appal no healthy Amer
lean. No right-thinking man desires to i'm
pair the efficiency of the great corpora tons
as instrumentalites of national commercial
development. Because they are great and
prosperous, is no sufficient reason, for their
destruction. That there are evils anG'
abuses In trust promotions, purposes, or
CARNATIONS, methods, management, ana
effects none questions, except those who
have protiteGl by those evils. That all or
any of these abuses are to- be found in every
large organization called a trust TO one
would assert who valued his reputation for
sane judgment.
1.-The conspicuous noXious features of
trusts existent and possible are these Over
capitalization, lack of publicity of opera
ton, discrimination in prices to destroy
competition, insufficient personal respon-
xibifity of officers ard directors for corpor-
ATE management, tendency to monopoly
and lack of appreciation. in their manage
ment of their relations to the people. for
whose benefit they are permitted to ex-
list DISQUALIFICATION is the chief of these
and the source from which the minor ones
flow.
Some Remedies Proposed.
Corporations and joint stock or other as
socatiors, depending upon any statutory
law for their existence or privileges. trad
ing beyond their own states, should be re-
CURED to do business in every state ard To-
cality upon precisely the same terms and
conditions. There should be no discrim-
matt in prices no preferences in service.
Such corporations serving the public as car
Tlers and in similar capacities should be
compelled to keep the avenues of commerce
free and open to all upon the same terms.
and to observe the law to Its injunctiors
against sitting competition. Moreover,
corporations upon which the people depend
for the necessares of life should be re-
CURED to conduct their business so as reg
uiarly and reasonably to supply the public
needs.
They should, be subject to vistorial SUI
pervision, and full and accurate Informal
ton as to their operations should be made
regularly at reasonable intervals. Secrecy
In the conduct and. results of operation is
urfair to the nonmaIaging stockholders.
and should, as we'll for reasons of state. be
prohibited by law. II these serious evils
are eraGicated and higher measure of ad-
ministrative responsibility required in cor
porate officers, a long step would be taken
TOWARD allaylng the reasonable appreEen-
zion that the unchecked aggression of the
trusts will result in practical monopoly of
The important business of the country"
The attorney general then took up
the question of the power of the gov
ernment to regulate trusts, citing the
constitution and legislation enacted
on the subject. He continues:
IF congress under its power to regulate
interstate commerce may utterly destroy
combination anC forfeit its property in in
terstate transit, as the Sherman act pro-
vides, because 1t restraints such commerce,
1t seems easonable to say that it can in the
exercise of the same power deny to a COM
bination whose life it cannot reach the priv
1lege of engaging in interstate CONNER e
except upon such terms as congress may
prescribe to protect that commerce from
restraint. Such regulation would oper-
ate directly upon commerce and only indi-
rectly upon the instrumertalities and OPP
erations of production. If the Sherman act
exhausts the power of congress over mo-
.nopolies, the American people find them
selves hopelessly impeteEt, facing situa-
fion fraught with the most alarming pos
stbilities, with which neither the federal
nor state governments can Gesal.
Power Must Lie Somewhere
PLAINLY, the power must reside some
where. either In the nation or in tho states
reservations; but the effect OF present
doubts is to create a dilemma under which
apparently, all power vandsheS. Conceding
that the present law is not effective through
out the situation, we come to the final al
Tentative: May not congress, under the ex-
listing constitutional grants, amend and ex-
tend the law and thus remedy it's defects
and so effectively regulate national ard for
elgn commerce is to prevent the sitting of
competition, the regulating of output and
price. and the restraining of national and
international trade? Ii the answer to this
question should be In the Affirmative sec
onG question follows: How might con gress
so amend the present law?
Il 90 not scruple to say that in my iudg-
lnent the more a thoughtful mind reflects
on the first question, the more unhesitat-
iEsly Will an affirmative answer be re-
turned. That regulation by congress in this
way would Indirectly or remotely affect
production WOULD be no bar. The very
point of the sugar trust case was that a
consoliceated' scheme of production might
lead to commerce. or might indirectly or
remotely affect commerce, but did not for
that reason invoke the federal power over
commerce., ard the Illustration from the
converse of the situation is significant or
the point just stated.
Thinks Congress Has Right
Congress under TINS power prevents the
importation or transportation of articles
CeemeG injurious to the general welfare
Thus the law subjects the movem of ex-
ploslNes to safeguards anG burdens abso-
lutely excludes impure literature ard dis
easeGl cattle, conVictS, and contract labor
and scrutnlZes End prevents or checks
many foreign and interstate movements,
throughout the entire field of international
ard national intercourse, ir the interest of
all the people, or grounds of commercial,
hygienic or ethical policy. Who shall set
limits row, in advance of a carefully framed
anC:Judiclally tested law, to the competency
of congress to regulate commerce in the
way suggested in the exercise of the legis-
latlVe wisdom and in the wiGie discre tion
coIsiided TO it? Who shall say thatt the power
Of congress does not extend so far? | think
1t does. l am quite sure no one can row
say that it does not.
Every constitutional question is an open
one until It Is authoritatveiy closed by
decision of the supreme court.
The president said in his first message