Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-09-25
LAWYERS AND TRUSTS.
Monstrous Combinations De-
nounced by Bar Association.
DRASTIC REMEDIES PROPOSED.

Graduated Franchise Tax Reaching
Maximum of 10 Per Cent One Sug-
EeEtiOn-WOuId Compel Railways
to Reduce Rates-State Socialism n
Last Resort.
That the trusts will be the leading
issue in 1904 has been evident to polit-
zeal prophets since the birth of the
billion dollar steel trust in 1901 and the
reign of trusts and monopOlies which
then became manifest to all. The ac-
ton Of the American Bar association
Aug. IS, in session at Hot Springs, Va.
makes 1t more certain than ever that
the trusts will be on the defensive next
year as never before. Thirty nine
state two territorial and 319 local bar
associations were represented.
The unanimous report of the commit
tee on commercial law constitutes one
of the most drastic antitrust documents
ever written. This committee. headed
by Walter S. Logan OF New York.
has roasted the trusts over the hottest
fire imaginable. Its report says that
combinations are rapidly driving out
of business the small dealer and the
small producer. These two classes
heretofore have furnished the largest
number of petitioners in bankruptcy
courts. But now industrial combina-
lions of gigantic magnitude. too large
for bankruptcy court to manage and
too rich to need ever to be called before
it. have been substituted. The report
adds:
1.-The modern combinations primary
IL
merce in plain articles of production
and substitute a more or less perfect
monopoly in the place of more or less
free competition. 1t changes entirely
the base principle of commercial rela-
lions between man and man, and If it
is to continue to grow and develop In
the future as in the past it will render
necessary most important changes in
the principles of our commercial laws.
Combination as an economic force Is
fast coming to take the place of COM
petition. The producers are combining,
tradesmen are combining, transporta-
ton companies are combining, work
men as we'll as employers are cOmbin-
ing. Everything seems to be coming
into some form of combination and ev-
erybody seems to be combiner. The
competition that still remains is fast
disappearing. Workmen are refusing
10 compete for jobs. Labor unions are
enlarging the spheres of their activity
and extending their operations. The
union of the employers is still stronger
and more far reaching than the unions
Of workmen.
1--WE are now having combinations Of
combinations. The United States Steel
corporation is combination of n dozen
heretofore competing producers, who
themselves We're combinations of still
other proc Icers. and these in turn Of
ten combinations Of still others. 1t is
estimated that the Standard Oil COM
pany has taken, by contract or by force,
the business of 10000 corporations and
merchants in all parts of the Union.
The few present great railroad lines
OF the country have been made up by
the combination of hundreds of smaller
lines. some extensions of one another
and other competing lines. Noone knows
but that within the next ten years a
greater than ]. Z. Morgan will arise
who will combine into one organiza-
ton all the industries of the land, so
that the workman who works for
wages can find but one possible en-
ployer and the purchaser of wares but
one seller. The steps toward the for
nation of An industrial corporation
which shall crowd out all other cor
pOrations and assume to itself all the
industries of the land have been al
ready more than half taken. 1t is not
so far to go from now to that end as
we had to go to reach present indus
trial conditions.
"A monopoly is economically desira-
ble-that is, for the monopolist. The
United States Steel corporation can
produce, no matter what it sells them
for, its goods cheaper than the ele-
ments out Of which the combination is
composed ever produced them. We
cannot therefore rely on natural forces,
on the laws Of supply and demand, or
on economic considerations to limit the
growth of modern combinations.
"If they are undesirable. if the people
of the American nation would be bet
ter without them or with limitations
put upon them, they must put those
limitations on by the action of their
legislatures, their congress and their
courts. The American bar must act,
and the American Bar association must
take the lead"
The report proposed the following
remedies:
''First-We can tax them to death,
or If that is too radical a remedy we
can tax them until their growth and
enlargement are impeded.
''Second.-We can compel them to
render better and cheaper service.
''Third.-If necessary the state itself
can enter the industrial field as a pro-
Queer and restore the force of compe-
tition to its former supremacy by be-
coming a competitor OF the great
trusts"
The report favors a graduated tax
on franchises which would reach a
ma ximum of 10 per cent a year on a
corporation with a capitalization OF