Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-01-07

THE ARGUS
advantages. and added:
Il confess that L like to see Pier
pont Morgan buying up great lines
of ocean steamships. / like to hear
of foreign potentates and principaIi-
ties 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
in protecting ourselves, not to destroy
them, nor to cramp them. We can
give them a law which will not i'm
pair their strength and not check
their natural and rightful growth, and
that | hope is all we mean to do. But
it will be a bad bargain if we buy the
dominion of the continent, or the en-
pire of the sea at the cost of Ameri-
can local public spirit
The Tariff Remedy
Mr.. Hoar said he 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 Of
the Trademark articles He consider
ed the remedy suggested by himself
more likely to prove effective. He an
nounced his opposition to government
ownership of great labor employing
industries, including coal miners and
railroads. Socialism, he said, furnish
es no remedy but would be quite as
lNnl
dead level proposed by socialism
would be destructive of everything
which makes life worth living or man
hood worth respecting Socialism
may do for China or Turkey. but it
will never be a Yankee remedy We
had no permanent danger to fear
from that source.
Corporations Beyond Control
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" said he, I'VE are to
deal not only with foreign commerce.,
but with that compared with which
the foreign commerce of the world is
tic commerce of the United States"
This commerce, he continues. is in
the hands of the great corporali ions,
and it is properly in their hands.
Their work might be benificent as
well as otherwise, and for this reason,
congress should go slowly and care
fully in devising Il remedy for the ills
lest it should bring on others which
might be worse. Two important steps
already had been taken in the passage
of the interstate commerce law and
the Sherman antitrust law, but while
both measures have proved effica-
cious they had fallen short of re-
quirements. The antitrust law had
accomplished even more than its
friends had expected of it, but there
had been, he said, much disappoint-
ment over the failure of the supreme
court adequately to interpret the
phrase lin restraint of trade" as APP
piled to combinations of business in
terests, Discussing the accomplish
ments under that law, Mr.. Hoar said
that The attorney general had gone
far already under it to break up mo-
nopoly which affected the whole
freight and passenger traffic of the
northwest, another affecting the cot
ton trade of the south and another
the price of beef a prime
article of food. He believed
that congress had power to
go farther on the lines indicated by
Attorney General Knox, in his Pitts
burg 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 considered tenta-
tive 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
its being permitted to engage in com
merce with foreign nations and
among the several states.
He then presented the following
outline of restrictions imposed by his
bill on corporations:
Restrictions Provided For.
First. publicity in the conduct of
their business and the constitution of
their organizations; second. the power
to stop their business altogether if
they violate the laws enacted by con-
gress; third. strict penalties on them
and their officers for such violations;
fourth, personal liability for all
debts, obligations and wrongdoings of
the directors, officers and agents
unless the laws be fully complied
with. This liability is secured by re-
quiring the personal consent to the
provisions of this bill and acceptance
of all its obligations by such officers,
directors and agents before they en-
fer uDOn office.