The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-30
OVERSHAD0W|NG
EVIL OF The AGE
Three Remedies 10 Check the
Giant Trusts.
THE REPORT GIVEN lNFULL
To Substitute a Jurisprudence Of Commercial
Restitution in the Place Of Jurispru-
den:e Of Commercial Com
petition.

petition.
We print below the full text of the re-
port of the Committee on Commercial Lew
on the Modern Commercial Combinations,
submitted to the American Bar Association
at Hot Springs, Va, on Thursday last. 1t
created tremendous opposition and long
discussion. 1t was finally, on resolution
of F. N. Judson, of Missouri, recommit-
ted with instructions to the committee to
report remedies for illegal combinations
which threaten commercial intercourse.
The report, one of the most valuable and
significant documents of the decade, or of
the new century, perhaps, was as follows:
The Constitution of the Association pro-
Nides that among the committees to be
annually appointed by the President for
the year ensuing shall be a Committee
On Commercial Law
The Bylaws provide that among the
order of exercises at the annual meeting
there shall be a report of the Committee
On Commercial Law
The Bylaws also provide for meetings
OF the various committees and for the
ports.
1t would seem, therefore. to be the
duty imposed on it by the Association of
the Committee on Commercial Law to
make report at the annual meeting of
the Association upon such matters con-
nected with commercial law as may have
been referred to it for report by the AS
ISOLATION or as they in their Judgment
may think important to be reported upon.
For several years past the Committee
on Commercial Law n been wrestling
with the bankruptcy % question, for the
reason that this question has been refer
red to the Committee by the Association
and because of its seeming paramount i'm
Portance for the time being
The important question now, however
before the bar of the United States seems
to be the effect of the modern gigantic
commercial or industrial combinations
upon the commercial jurisprudence of the
country. These combinations are rapidly
driving out of business the small trader
and the small producer, the classes who
have. hesEtofSre FURNISHED the larger
number of petitioners or defendants in
bankruptcy courts, and substituting in
their place industrial combinations of
gigantic magnitude, supposed to be too
large for bankruptcy court to manage
and too rich to need ever to be called
before it. These combinations are chang
ing the commercial methods of our peo-
pie and having drastic effects upon our
commercial law.
Your Committee, therefore. are of the
opinion that they would be derelict in
the duty they owe to the Association
which has honored them and imposed
UPON them the responsibilities of their
position. if they did not bring before the
Association at its meeting this year this
question which for the time being at
least seems to be of such Importance
The question seems to come clearly within
the province of this Committee. The
modern combination is entirely industrial
and largely commercial 1t deals prin-
cipally with trade and commerce It's
primary object is to control trade and
commerce in certain articles of produc-
ton and substitute a more or less perfect
monopoly in the place of a more or less
free competition. 1t changes entirely the
basic principle of commercial relations be-
tween man and man, and if they are to
continue to grow and develop in the fu-
ture in the past will render necessary
most important changes in the princi-
Piles of our commercial law We have
heretofore, relying upon competition to
do its perfect work and protect the peo-
pie, allowed trade and commerce to be
carried on unhampered and without re-
strictions. The law has simply compelled
each man to respect the vested rights OF
his competitor and then said to each in
effect. LET the best man win and the
devil take the hindmost." If combina-
ton and monopoly are to take the place
OF competition and business rivalry, the
law will have to step III and protect, not
the competitor from an assault upon his
legal rights, but the citizen from the dan
ger of the destruction of his means of
livelihood. We shall have to substitute
a Jurisprudence of commercial restric-
ticn in the place of Jurisprudence of
commercial competition.
The organized bar of America has,
therefore, in the various capacities in
which it serves the community, to crap
pie with the question of whether the
modern industrial combination should be
allowed to continue and to grow If so,
how shall we protect the people from the
evils which it threatens? and If not,
how shall we curb its depredations and
limit it's growth? These are the ques-
tions which your Committee have at
tempted to wrestle with in their delibera-
tons
Competition has been the cornerstone of
Our civilization. To get the best of
everything it needs, the community has
relied upon competing producers. Our
great cities have depended for their daily
food upon competition between producers
and carriers. To get a fair price the
seller plays one competing buyer against
another, and to purchase at fair price