The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-07
TERRORS OF TRUSTS
ARE DISCUSSED BY HOAR IN THE
SENATE.
HIS CLAIMS FOR HIS BILL.
WHAT HE URGES 1T WILL Accom-
PLISH.

Senator's Bill depends Upon Con-
gress' Power to Regulate Com
merce-POssibIe to Impose Person.
al Liability Upon Every Stock
holder in n Trust-Great Corpora
wealth More Dangerous Than
That of individuals.
Washington, Jan. Ex-senator Hoar
spoke to-day on his bill regulating
trusts.
Senator Hoar said that nearly all
Thoughtful men in this country are
agreed that some legislation, state or
national, ought to be had for the regu-
lation and control of what are called
trusts and of large masses of capital
accumulated by corporations, or arti-
fetal persons, holding property and
conducting business without individual
liability. There was, he said, gem
eral feeling of insecurity and alarm
about the matter, and we are dealing
with a real peril and not with a fam
cied or imaginary danger. If his bill
should become law and prove effective
no COI POI ciIlOlA CiiSoSAllG III NAlC SOAlA-
merce which is within the jurisdiction
Of Congress can keep its condition
secret.
The bill, he said, depends for its va
lidity on the constitutional power of
Congress to regulate international and
interstate commerce. Should the bill
not prove effectual, it would be easy
to extend it's operation by imposing
a personal liability on every stock
holder.
More Than individuals.
Senator Hoar discussed the effect of
the control of vast wealth by individ-
uals. saying that in such a system
there was much to threaten Republi-
can liberty. Most of the vast fortunes
of the present day had been accumu-
lated within thirty years. rs there
anything to render it unlikely he
asked, that if one of these vast for
tunes has grown from hundred thou
sand to a hundred million, or a thou
sand million in thirty years, that in the
hands of the next possessor in another
thirty or fifty years, the hundred mil
lion may become a hundred thousand
million, or the thousand million thou
sand thousand million.
But great as were the possibilities
of the accumulation of great wealth
by individuals he did not find in such
accumulation the same peril that is
found in corporate control of such
wealth. This was true. he said, be-
cause the natural man dies and his es-
tate is distributed under the law, while
the corporation lives forever.
1T never goes through the probate
re inf GTV1 al tfr1r 1cs1 OF
kept secret. 1t is not jealous for its
own honor or reputation, except so far
as its honor or reputation is essential
to its getting money 1t has no soul
and no conscience. In general, the
men who are most powerful in its
management can, if they see fit, avoid
responsibility to public opinion They
always expect to avoid personal liza
bility for obligations"
Nation Needed to Deal with Them
Speaking of corporations, Mr.. Hoar
said no power less than that of the
entire nation is capable of dealing
with them. The question was the
most important that had come up for
long time, for" he said I'VE are to
deal not only with foreign commerce,
but with that compared with which
the foreign commerce of the world is
but a drop in the bucket-the domestic
commerce of the United States.'
This commerce is, he continued, in
the hands of the great corporations,
and it is properly in their hands Two
important steps had already been taken
in the passage of the interstate COM
merce law and the Sherman antitrust
law, but while both measures had
proved efficacious, they had fallen
short of the requirements. Discussing
the accomplishments under the Sher-
man law, Mr.. Hoar said that the At
tOrney General has gone far already
under it to break up monopoly which
affected the whole freight and passen-
ger traffic of the Northwest, another
affecting the cotton traffic of the
South, and another the price of beef,
a prime article of food. He believed
that Congress had power to go further
on the lines indicated by Attorney Gen
eral Knox in his Pittsburg speech, and
the enactment of law on the general
lines of his bill he thought would be
only another step in the direction of
the antitrust law. His bill he consid-
cred tentative and experimental, but
it was safe and could be modified. We
should proceed safely step by step. The
measure, he said, is based entirely on
the theory that Congress can impose
on corporation created by any state
such obligations as it shall think fit
and reasonable as a condition for it's
being permitted to engage in commerce
with foreign nations and among the
several states.