Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-12-06

pI esent prejudice against them must
be relegated to the background. The
corporations must come out into the
open and see and be seen. They must
take the public into their confidence
and ask for what they want and no
more, and be prepared to explain salts
fsctorily what advantage will accrue
to the public if they are given their de-
sires, for they are permitted to exist
not that they make money solely, but
that they may effectively serve those
from whom they derive their power.
Publicity and not secrecy will win
hereafter, and laws be construed by
their intent and not by their letter,
otherwise public utilities will be owned
and operated by the public which
created them, even though the service
be less efficient and the result less sat
isfactory from a financial standpoint. /"
Bureau Of Corporations.
The bureau Of corporations has made
careful preliminary investigation of
many important corporations. 1t will
make special report on the beef in
dustry.
The policy of the bureau is to ac-
Icomplish the purposes of its creation by
cooperation, not antagonism; by MAX
ing constructive legislation, not de-
etr,,o+iya ,roeaoution tbo i,nuadiota
object of its inquiries; by conservative
investigation of law and fact, and by
refusal to issue incomplete and hence
necessarily inaccurate reports. It's pol
icy being thus one of an open inquiry
into and not an attack upon business,
the bureau has been able to gain not
only the confidence, but, better still,
the cooperation of men engaged in
legitimate business.
The bureau offers to the congress
the means of getting at the cost of
production of our various great staples
Of commerce.
OF necessity the careful investiga
tion of special corporations will afford
the commissioner knowledge of certain
business facts, the publication of which
might be an improper infringment of
private rights. The method of making
public the results of these investiga-
tions affords, under the law, means
for the protection of private rights. The
congress will have all facts except such
as would give to another corporation
information which would injure the le-
gitimate business of competitor and
destroy the incentive for individual SUI
periority and thrift.
The bureau has also made exhaustive |
examinations into the legal condition
under which corporate business is car
ried on in the various states, into all |
judicial decisions on the subject, and |
into the various systems of corporate |
taxation in use. l call special atten- |
tlon to the report of the chief of the |
bureau, and earnestly ask that the
congress carefully consider the report |
and recommendations of the commits |
sioner on this subject.
Insurance.
The business of insurance vitally af. |
fects the great mass of the people of |
the United States, and is national and |
not local in its application. 1t involves
a multitude of transactions among the
people of the different states and be- !
tween American companies and foreign
governments. / urge that the congress
consider whether the power
of the bureau of corporations cannot
constitutionally be extended to cover
interstate transactions in insurance.
Rebates.
Above all else we must strive to
keep the highways of commerce open
to all on equal terms, and to do this it
is necessary to put a complete stop to
all rebates. Whether the shipper or
the railroad is to blame makes no diff.
ference; the>rebate must be stopped,
the abuses of the private car and pri-
vate terminal track and sidetrack sys-
TENS must be stopped, and the legisla-
tion of the ffty-eighah congress, which
declares it to be unlawful for any per-
son or corporation to offer, grant, give,
solicit, accept or receive any rebate,
or discrimination in respect
Of the transportation of any property in
or foreign commerce whereby
such property shall by any device what
ever be transported at a less rate than
that named in the tariffs published by
the carrier, must be enforced For some
lime after the enactment of the act to
regulate commerce it remained a moot.
I'd question whether that act conferred
Ipon the interstate commerce commits
'ion the power, after it had found a
challenged rate to be unreasonable, to 4
leclare what thereafter should. Drima {