The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-04
The Evil Cannot
be Cured by Law
CONTINUED from First Page,)

Interstate commerce. His powers to OK
nose illegal or hurtful practices and to
iobtain all information needful for the
purposes of further intelligent legislation
seem adcquate and the publicity justi-
fable and proper for public purposes is
satisfactorily guaranteed. The law was
passed at the very end of the session of
Congress Owing to the lateness of its
passage Congress was not able to provide
proper equipment for the department;
land the first few months must neces-
sarily be spent in the work OF organiZa-
ton. and the first Investigations must
! necessarily be of a tentative character.
The satisfactory development of such
system requires time and great labor.
Those who are intrusted with the admin
istratiOn of the new law will assuredly
administer it in a spirit of absolute fair
ness and Justice and of entire fearless
ness. with the firm purpose net to hurt
Ianv corporation doing a legitimate bust
pess-on the contrary to help it-and,
on the other hand, not to spare any cor
poration which may be guilty Of illegal
rrocticos or the methods of
which may make it menace to the pub
Ilic welfare Some substantial
good will be done in the immediate flu
ture: and as the department gets
fairly to work under the law an ever lar
ger vista for good work will be opened
along the lines indicated. The enactment
of this law is one of the most significant
contributions which have been made in
our time toward the proper solution OF
the problem of the relations to the peo-
pic Of the great corporations and corpor-
ate combinations.
THE RAILROAD TRUST
But much though this is it is only a
! part of what has been done in the effort
| to ascertain and correct improper trust or
monopolistic practices. Some eighteen
months ago the Industrial Commission,
an able and non-partisan body, reported to
| Congress the result of their investigation
of trusts and industrial combinations.
| One of the most important of their con-
clusions was that determinations in
| freight rates and facilities were granted
| favored shippers by the railroads and
! that these determinations clearly tended
! toward the control of production and
prices in many fields of business by large
combinations. That this conclusion was
| justifiabIe was shown by the disclosures
| in the investigation of railroad methods
pursued in the fall and winter of 1901
! 1902 1t was then shown that certain
trunk lines had entered into unlawful
| agreements as to the transportation of
food products from the West to the At
| lantic seaboard, giving few favored
| shippers rates much below the tariff
charges imposed upon the smaller deal
ers and the general public. These I'M
| lust practices had prevailed to such an
| extent and for so long a time that many
of the smaller shippers had been driven
out of business. until practically one
buyer Of grain on each railway system
| had been able by his illegal advantages
to secure a monopoly on the line with
which his secret compact mas made this
monopoly enabling him to fix the price
I otboth producer and consumer. Many
of the great packing house concerns were
shown to be in combination with each
other and with most of the great railway
| lines whereby they enjoyed large secret
concessions in rates and thus obtained
| a practical monopoly of the fresh and
cured meat industry Of the country
These fusions, though violative Of the
statute. had prevailed unchecked for so
many wears that they had become in
trenched in and interviewer with the
commercial life Of certain large dstribu-
ting localities; although this was OF
course at the expense of the vast body
of Iaw-abiding merchants, the general
public, and particularly of unfaVored 10
calities.
1T is clear that corporations created
for quasi public purposes clothed for that
reason with the ultimate power of the
State to take private property against
the will of the owner. hold their corpor-
ate powers as carriers in trust for the
fairly impartial service of all the pub
lie. Favoritism in the use Of such pow
ers, unjustly enriching some and IN
Justly impoverishing others, discriminat-
ing in favor Of some places and against
others, is palpably violative of plain
principles of justice. Such practice
unchecked is hurtful in many ways. Con
gress, having had it's attention drawn to
the matter, enacted a most important
anti-rebate law, which greatly strength
ems the Interstate Commerce law. This
new law prohibits under adequate penal
ties the giving and as well the demand
ing or receiving of such preferences, and
provides the preventive remedy of in
junction. The vigorous administration OF
this law, and it will be enforced, will,
it is hoped, afford a substantial remedy
for certain trust evils which have at
tractcd public attention and have created
public unrest
This law represents a noteworthy and
important advance toward just and eff
fective regulation of transportation.
Moreover. it's passage has been supple
mented by the enactment of a law to eX-
pedite the hearing of actions of public
moment under the antitrust act known
as the Sherman law, and under the act
to regulate commerce, at the request of
the Attorney General and furthermore,
additional funds have been appropriated
to be expended under the direction of
the Attorney General in the enforcement
of these laws.
1.-The first step taken was the
prosecution of fourteen suits against the
principal railroads of the Middle West.
restraining them by injunction from
further violations of either of the laws