Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-07
CONTROL ALL TRUSTS


use the ancient phrase Of the English. But ]
II has life enough for all purposes Of power
dead. only 20 the influence Of any nerve
which comes from the brain or heart Of
the people.
Dwelling especially on the want Of ompe-
tition, he said:
There is one central power alone with
which the skilled workman must deal and
one dominant will TO which he must sub
init. There may be a little help for him by
joining a labor union, where he gets tho
advantage OF associated strength on his
side, but the labor union knows no differ
ence between excellence and the reverse.
There the inefficient man and the lazy man
and the dun man must stand on one dead
level. with the brightest and keenest and
most ingenious of his comrades.
Sees Some advantages.
Mr.. Hoar said that many as we're the
evils in the great combinations Of capital
some Of them would be counterbalanced by
corresponding advantages and added;
1 confess I like to see Pierpont Morgan
buying up great lines of ocean steamships.
like to. hear Of foreign potentates and
~principalities and powers bowling down
when he visits the continent of Europe.
We need great strength. We need great
individual power If we are to rival foreign
nations in the great matters which they
also control by individual power We
must, If we. can, look out, I'm protecting our
selves, not to destroy them nor to cramp
them.
We. can give them a law which will not
impair their strength and not check their
natural and rightful growth, and that I
hope Is all we mean to do. But it will be
a bad bargain If we buy the dominion of
the cost OF American loyal public spirit.
But great wealth should be controlled as
the servant of man and Of the government
and should not be given the reins of con-
troll. We must keep control over agencies
which can make cities grow or wither.
Free Trade Not the Remedy.
Mr.. Hoar said no did not agree with
those who think they find an adequate
remedy for the evils OF the trusts in the
removal OF the tariff from all trust-made
articles. He considered the remedy sug-
gested by himself more likely to prove eff
~fective.
He announced his opposition to govern
ment ownership of great labor-employing
inductries, including coal mines and rail-
roads.
Socialism, he said, furnishes no remedy,
but would be quite as bad as the trusts
themselves. The dead level proposed by
socialism would be destructive of every
thing which makes life worth living or
manhood worth respecting.
Socialism may do for China or for Tur-
key, but 1t will never be a Yankee rem
edy. We had no permanent danger to
fear from that source.
Speaking Of corporations, Mr.. Hoar said
no power less than that of the empire
nation is capable OF dealing with them.
The question is the most important that
has come UP for a long time, for" said
he, I'VE are to deal not only with foreign
commerce, but with that with which the
foreign m Of the world is but a
drop in the bucket-the domestic COM
merce OF the United States"
This commerce, he continued, is in the
handa Of tho great oornorotfone and a. L.,
properly in their hands. Their work might
be benehcent as well as otherwise, and for
this reason congress should go slowly and
carefully in devislng a remedy for the ills
lest 1t should bring on others which might
pc worse. rsa .7a.. so -o'c 500 Csr ,ta-
,r Two Important steps Taken. ,'
Two important steps had already been
taken in the passage OF the interstate
commerce law and the Sherman antitrust
law, but while both measures had proved
eficacfous, they had fallen short of the
requirements. The antitrust law had ac-
complished even more than It's friends had
expected Of it, but there had been, he said,
much disappointment over the failure OF
the supreme court adequately to interpret
the phrase "in restraint of trade" as ap-
piled to combination Of business interests.
Discussing the accomplishments under
that law, Mr.. Hoar said that the attorney
general had gone far already under It to
break up a monopoly which affected the
whole freight and passenger traffic OF the
northwest, and one affecting the cotton
trade 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 At
torney General Knox in his Pittsburg
speech, and the enactment of a 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 1t
5 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 a corporation created by any state such
, obligations as 1t shall think fit and rea-
sonable, as a condition for its being per-
: mitted to engage in m with for
eign nations and among the several states.
Remedies Proposed.
t He then presented the following outline
q Of the restrictions imposed by his bill on
corporations:
First-PubHeity in the conduct Of their
business and the constitution or their or
second-The power to stop their business
A altogether II they violate the laws enacted
u by congress,
= Third-Striot penalty on them and Their
officers for such violations.
Fou~rth-Personal stability for all debts
obligations and wrong-doinEs OF the al,
~rectors, officers and agents. unless the law.
be fully complied with. This liability Is
. secured by requiring the personal consent
I to the provisions Of this bin and acceptance
o OF all It's obligations by such officers, al
rectors and agents before they enter upoT
! office.
= AS. to the effect OF the measure In cas'
e II should become a law he said
IL this bill should become a law and be
d come effective no corporation Engaging n
the commerce which Is within the juris
diction OF congress can keep It's condition
a secret. No such corporation can do bust
! ness on fictitious capital or watered stock
= No corporation can Cypress any rival
whether corporate OF Individual. by an,
unla practices.
A II It does II will be on the condition tina
every one of it's managers become per
sonally liable for it's debts and its torts, an,
will be liable also to heavy criminal liza