Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-09-05
DISCUSS
CURES FOR TRUSTS
American Bar Association
Meeting Considers Cures
for Trusts.
WOULD TAX BIG COMBINES
After Long Discussion of the Report 1t
Is Reoommitted With Instructions
to Report on Forcing Law.
breakers to Obey Law.

Hot Springs, Va, Aug. 31.-At the
morning session of the American Bar
association the following officers were
elected:
President-James Hagerman, Mis-
souri,.
Secretary-John Hinckley, Maryland.
Treasurer-Fred w. Wadhams, Ne"
York.
Hot Springs, Va, Aug. 3l.-The
American Bar association mad a warm
debate over the report OF the commit
tee on commercial laws, which sug-
Sested remedies for the growth OF
trusts. At the evening session the re-
port was recommitted with lnstruc-
ions to confine 1t to those coWblna-
ions which exist in defiance or law.
The committee on commercial law
N dealing with the trust question:
says this is the important question no"
before the American bar. 1t says COM
,inations are rapidly driving u or
business the small dealers and the
small producers. These two classes
heretofore have furnished the largest
number OF petitioners in bankruptcy
courts, But now industrial combina-
ions of gigantic magnitude, too large
or a bankruptcy court 10 ana
90 rich to need ever to be called be-
'ore il, have been substituted. n re-
Object of Combines.
The modern combinations primary OBJ
,ect is 10 control trade and commerce IN
,Iain articles of production, ana SUBSTITUTE
4 more or less perfect monopolf IN pLace Oh
4 more or less free competition. III changes
entirely the basic principle OF commercial
-eI1iions between man and man, and II
hey are to continue TO grow ana develop
m the future as in the past VIII Tehder
necessary most important changes IN the
principles Of our commercial laws. COM
~nination as an economic force Is fast com
ug 10 take the place of competition. The
producers are combining, IanspoTlatloh
companies are combining, ,traueslneh are
combining, workmen as well as employers
are CombIning; everything seems 10 De
coming into some form of combination,
md everybody seems TO be a comblner.
Ihe competition that still remains Is fast
jisappearing. Workmen are refusing TO
compete for jobs. Labor unions are en-
.arging the sphere of their activity and eX.
tending their operations. The union OF
he employers Is still stronger and more
Ear reaching than the union of the work.
men. We are now having combination
and combinations. The United States Steel
,orporation is a combination OF a dozen
heretofore competing producers VINO
themselves were combinations OF still 9TH
ar producers, and these in turn often
combinations of still others. To trace them
pack to their beginnings is like discovering
all the multitude OF sources that go TO
make up the volume of the swollen Missis-
sippi. The property which the Amalgam-
ated Copper company now controls was
once, perhaps, u thousand mining claims,
each one likely owned In common by q
half dozen miners. The department store
trust has combined the business Of hun
lreds Of merchants, some portions OF
which they acquired by purchase, and
,thers in some other way. 1t Is estimated
hat the Standard Oil company has taken,
oy contract or by force, the business of
I'd. 900 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 others of the competing
lines.
Shipping Trust, a Pet Combine.
The ambition Of the shipping trust, per-
haps the pet project of the great American
combines, has been TO control all the ships
that sail the ocean. A hundred years age
there were hardly two ships owned by the
fifty years ago there was scarcely a ship
owner, Individual or corporation, that
owned half a dozen ships. No one knows
but that within the next ten years q
greater man than j. Pierpont Morgan will
arise who will combine iRto one organi-
cation all the industries, SO that the work.
man who works for wages can find but one
possible employer, and the purchaser OF
wares but one possible, seller. The steps
toward the formation of one universal in.
dustrial corporation which shall crowd out
all ether corporations and assume to IT.
self all the industries Of the land, have al
ready been 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 desirable,
that is for the monopolist. The United
states Steel corporation can produce, nc
matter what 1t sells them for, its goods
cheaper than the elements out Of which
he combination is composed ever produced
them. The Standard O. company is eco.
nomically holy. for it pays 40 per cent
dividends. The trust is economically
correct, for whereas the individual sugar
retiners lost money on small capitalization
the sugar trust pays big dividends on 9
large capitalization. The railroad comb.
nations are economically impregnable, fol-
they pay. II Mr.. Morgan's shipping trust
and Mr.. Schwab's shipbuilding truAt are
failures they are exceptions to the rule.
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. II
they are undesirable, If the people of the
American nation would be better off with
out them or with limitations put on them
they must put those limitations on by the
action OF their legislatures, their con
must act, and the American Bar associa
must act, and te American Bar asoscia-
ton must take the lead. If the Northern
oGCul llltS " POI III ldu DCtl CT
to go on, the next thing to follow il
would naturally have been a United
States Securities company which woulC
hold the majority OF the stock of every
railroad where the American flag flies.
How to Remedy Matters.
The report proposes the following
remedies:
l. We can tax them to death, or If tha'
is too radical Il remedy we can tax then
until their growth and enlargement are
impeded. There are constitutional pro
visions requiring direct taxation to bt
uniform, and, in View of these provision:
1t is probably impossible to discriminate
in the matter of direct taxation agains'
corporations holding large amounts OF
aXabl property. There Is, however, 6
franchise tax imposed by most OF tn,
their incorporation, and annually there
after. This franchise tax is In almos
all states In some way graded so as Il
tax the small corporation at a higher
rate han the large one. The first 81, 200, 90
pays a higher rate than subsequent mil
lions. In our judgment the graduation
should be continued, but 1t should be {
grading up, instead OF down. We bel.ev,
perhaps the first $100, 900 free and the frs
81, 900, 600 cheap, and raise the rate Will
each succeeding 81, 900, 900. The United
States Steel corporation has a capitalize
stages might be slow and easy enough e
please the most conservative. and yet re
suit in q taxation of 10 per cent. upor
the last 500, 900, 900. How long would tn,
United States Steel corporation c~ontinu,
under that system OF taxation?
2. We can compel them to render betteI
and cheaper service. If the combination
OF the Northern Pacific and the Grea
Northern railroads is so great public dis
aster to have warranted the attention