The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-12-04

of modern industrialism, and the effort to
] destroy them would be futile unless ac-
compIished in ways that would work the
| utmost mischief to the entire body polite.
| We can do nothing of good in the way
| of regulating and supervising these cor
! porations until we fix clearly in our minds
| that We are not attacking the corpora
| tons, but endeavoring to do away with
any evil in them. We are not hostile to
| them; we are merely determined that they
shall be so handled as to subserve the
public good. We draw the line against
misconduct, not against wealth.
The capitalist who, alone or in conjunc-
| ton with his fellows, performs some
great industrial feat by which he wins
money is a welldoer, not a wrongdoer,
! provided only he works in proper and
legitimate lines. We wish to favor such
man when he does well. we wish to
supervise and control his actions only to
prevent him from doing ILL., Publicity
can do no harm to the honest corpora
| ton; and we need not be overtender
| about sparing the dishonest corporation.
Care Should Be Exercised.
In curbing and regulating the combina
lions of capital which are or may become
injurious to the public we must be careful
not to stop the great enterprises which
have legitimately reduced the cost of pro-
duction, not to abandon the place which
our country has won in the leadership of
the international industrial world, not to
strike down wealth with the result of
closing factories and mines, of turning
the wage-worker idle in the streets and
leaving the farmer without a market for
what he grows.
Insistence upon the impossible means
delay in achieving the possible, exactly
as, on the other hand the stubborn de-
tense alike of what is good and what is
bad in the existing system, the resoute
effort to obstruct any attempt at better
ment, betrays blindness to the historic
truth that wise evolution is the sure safe
guard against revolution.
No more important subject can come
before the Congress than this of the
regulation of interstate business. This
country can not afford to sit supine on
the plea that under our peculiar system
of government we are helpless in the
presence of the new conditions, and I'M
able to- grapple with them or to cut out
whatever of evil has arisen in connection
with them. The power of the Congress
to regulate interstate commerce is an
absolute and unqualified grant, and with
out limitations other than those pre-
scribed by the Constitution.
The Congress has constitutional author
ity to make all laws necessary and prop
err for executing this power, and l am
satisfied that this power has not been
exhausted by any legislation now on the
|
that evils restrictive of commercial free
dom and entailing restraint upon national
commerce fall within the regulative pow
er of the Congress, and that a wise and
reasonable law would be a necessary and
proper exercise of Congressional author
| ity to the end that such evils should be
eradicated.
Special Appropriation.
l believe that monopolies. unjust dis
ordinations, which prevent or cripple |
competition, fraudulent overcapitaliza
ton, and other evils in trust organiza- |
tions and practices which injurously af |
feet interstate trade can be prevented
under the power of the Congress to
regulate commerce with foreign nations
and among the several States" through
regulations and requirements operating
directly upon such commerce, the instru- |
mentalities thereof, and those engaged |
therein.
/ earnestly recommend this subject to
the consideration of the Congress with |
a view to the passage of law reasonable |
in it's provisions and effective in it's |
operations, upon which the questions can
be finally adjudicated that now raise
doubts as to the necessity of constitu-
tional amendment. If it prove impossible |
to accomplish the purposes above set
forth by such a law, then, assuredy, we
should not shrink from amending the
Constitution so as to secure beyond per-
adventure the power sought.
The Congress has not heretofore made
any appropriation for the better enforce
ment of the antitrust law as it now
stands. Very much has been done by
the Department of Justice in securing
the enforcement of this law, but much
more could be done If Congress would
make a special appropriation for this
purpose, to be expended under the di-
rection of the Attorney General
Tariff Reduction Opposed.
One proposition advocated has been the
reduction of the tariff as a means of |
reaching the evils of the trusts which
fall within the category | have described. |
Not merely would this be wholly ineffec-
tive, but the diversion of our efforts in
such a direction would mean the aban-
donment of all intelligent attempt to do |
away with these evils. Many of the
largest corporations, many of those which
should certainly be included in any prop |
er scheme of regulation, would not be
affected in the slightest degree by a
change in the tariff, save as such change !
interfered with the general prosperity of
the country.
The only relation of the tariff to big
corporations as a whole is that the tariff
makes manufactures profitable, and the
tariff remedy proposed would be in effect
simply to make manufactures unprofit
able. To remove the tariff as a punitive
measure directed against trusts would
inevitably result in the ruin to the weak
er competitors who are struggling against
them.
Our aim should be not by unwise tariff
changes to give foreign products the adj
vantage over domestic products, but by
proper regulation to give domestic COM
petition a fair chance: and this end can
--t~ 4hav