The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-09-01
THE TRUST QUESTION
T~NDUSTRTs- CONBINA-
TIONS SHOULD BE STAYED.
Report of Committee on ommercial
Address by Judge Colt


morning session of the American Bar
Association today the annual address
was delivered bv Labaron B. Colt. Of
Rhode Island. United States judge
from the first circuit.
Judge Colts subject was Reason
ablesness Of the Law"
The common law is nothing but
reason" was an opening sentence
which was the key note of the pa
per.
Walter S. Logan. of New York. made
a verbal report from the committee on
commercial law. He commended the
national bankrupt law n then dis
cussed the trust question. He said
it would nave to be settled by the
lawyers; if they did not. the DANA
gogues would. If combinations con-
tine. competition will cease, and com
be entirely changed. The committee.
he said. had reached he unanimous
conclusion that odern industrial
combinations should be STAYED.
Hon. Charles F. Henderson. Of Ne
braska. said the report Of the COM
mittee had filed him with amazement,
surprise and INDIGNATION. He said the
report was calculated to rend the as
ISOLATION asunder and he resented the
olNOIiipl luIH LII oouN ihNO " poiASi
cal ~hustings. He asked that the re-
port be read. There was opposition
to the motion and considerable confuS-
on. The convention agreed to hear
the report at once and it was read by
Chairman LOonn and was very fully
discussed.
On the subject of trusts the report
says this is the important question now
before the American bar.
The report adds: The modern COM
binationS primary object is to control
trade n commerce in plain articles
of production and substitute a more or
less perfect monopoly in the place Of q
more or less free competition. 1t
changes entirely the basic principle Of
commercial relations between man and
man, and if hey are to continue to
grow and develop in the future as In
the past 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 competition. We are
now having combinations of combina-
TONS. The United States Steel Corpor-
alton is a combination Of a dozen here
tofore competing producers who them
selves were combinations of still other
producers, and these in turn often
combinations of still others.
1t is estimated that the Standard Oil
Company has taken, by contract or by
force, the business of ten thousand
corporations and merchants in all parts
of the Union. The few present great
railroad ines of the country have been
made up by the combination of hum
dredS of smaller lines, some extension
Of one another and others competing
lines.
The ambition of the shipping trust,
perhaps the pet project of the great
American combine, has been to con-
troll all the ships that sail the ocean.
A hundred years ago there were hard
ly two ships owned by the same ind1-
vidual or corporation, n even fifty
years ago there was scarcely a hlp
owner, individual or corporation. that
owned a half dozen ships. No n
knows but that within the next ten
years a greater mar than j. Plerpont
Morgan will arise who will combine
into one organization all the industries
Of the land. so that the workman who
works for wages can find but One pos
sible employer and the purchaser of
wares but n possible seller. The
steps toward the formation of one in
dustrial corporation which shall crowd
out all other corporations and assume
to itself all the Industries Of the land
have been already more than half
AIKEN. 1t is not SO far to go from
now to that end as we had to go to
reach present industrial conditions.
A monopoly is economically deSira-
BILE; that is for the monopollst. The
United States Steel Corporation can
produce no matter what it sells them
for, it's goods cheaper than the ele-
ment out of which the combination Is
composed ever produced them. The
Standard Oil company is economically
holy for it a 40 per cent dividends.
The sugar trust is economically correct
for whereas the individual sugar re-
finers lost money on small cap1taliza-
lions, the sugar trust pays big divt-
dendS on a large capitalization. The
combinations are economical
ly i~mpregnable for they pay.
If Mr.. Morgan's shipping trust and
Mr.. Schwab's shipbuilding trust are
failures, they are exceptions to the
rule. We cannot, therefore rely on
natural forces, on the laws CT supply
and demand or on economic conSidera-
tons to limit the growth Of modern
combinations. If they are undesirable
if h people of the American nation
would be better off without them or
with limitations put upon them, they
must put these limitations on by the
action of their legislatures, their con-
greSS n their courts. The American
bar must act and the American Bar
Association must take the lead. If the
Securities Corporation had
been allowed to go on, the next thing
to follow would naturally have been
a United States Securities company,
which would hold the majority of the
stock Of every railroad where the
American flag flies.
The report proposed the following
remedies:
I. We can tax them to death: or if
hat is too radical a remedy we can
tax them until their growth and en-
largement is impeded. There are con-
.stitutiOnal provisions requiring direct
to be uniform and in view Of
their provisions it is probably impossi-
BILE to discriminate in the matter Of d.
rect taxation against corporations
holding large amounts of taxable
property. There is, however, a fran
chise tax imposed by most Of the
states upon corporations at the time Of
their Incorporation and annually there
after. This franchise tax is IN almost
all states in some way graded so as
to tax the small corporations at q
rate than the large one. The
first million pays a higher rate than
subsequent millions. In u judgment
the gradations should be continued,
but it should be a grading up instead
Of down. We would leave. perhaps.