The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-04
EXERCISE NO. 8.

While instruction suited to the pri-
mary grades is not the business Of
The Globe it occasionally strikes a
pupil at once so deficient in the alpha
bet of public affairs and so promising
Intellectually that it cannot resist step
ping aside for a, moment from the Sc
rious business of life to take the en-
gaging child by the hand and give it
some needed lessons. OF such is the
Minneapolis Tribune. We have already
labored with it on two occasions, but
perceive our error. We credited it
with at least kindergarten experience,
when we should have begun at the very
beginning. Our Exercise Number 8,
therefore, should really take first place
in the econoghc ollendorf design for
the Tribune's instruction.
If the Tribune will now lay aside its
top and other toys, sit up straight and
pay attention, we will give it little
lesson to learn. First, the modern
form of business cooperation is the
corporation. Corporations are engaged
in trade Of one sort or another. Where
this trade is confined within the linn
les, remembering the desperate valor of
merce and subject to local law. Where
it passes the state boundary and COM
modities are carried from one common
wealth to another it is interstate trade.
BY the constitution OF the United
to regulation by the federal congress,
and this privilege has been exercised
by the passage Of an interstate COM
merce act, by the enactment of the
Sherman antitrust law and on many
other important occasions.
We trust the Tribune can understand
this distinction, for we would rather
it should learn by love than under the
| rod. All trade has been subject from
the beginnings Of common law to the
common law maxim that anything
which monopolizes or restraints trade
is contrary to public policy. This rule
is everywhere applicable and has al
ways been enforced by the courts. The
state courts will enforce it against a
state monopoly. The federal courts
have enforced it, and will enforce it
again with great jealousy, against COM
binations in the larger field. The au-
thority Is complete and unquestioned.
The dividing line is also about as we'll
established as that between the state
and the nation In the geographical
way.
When, therefore, the Tribune and
others talked about the New York
platform as declaring that corporations
should be subject to state regulation
only, they talked rubbish. Nobody is
proposing at present the repeal of all
laws regulating interstate commerce
and the section of the constitution per-
hitting it. When they began to talk
about subjecting all commerce, not
only interstate, but local, to federal
power by enactment Of a national cor
poration law, the cloven hoof peeped
out. This was why they have raised
a cloud Of silly dust. They have pre-
tended that Democrats wished to mar
row the circle of federal regulation,
in order that attention might be divert
ed from their proposition to widen 1t
until all possible activity in the United
States should be subject to centralized
| control at Washington and pay its toll
to the party committee for the special
privileges of the favorite, just as the
! manufacturer does now.
Our other readers will pardon us this
excursion into the domain of the in
FAINT class, because the Minneapolis
Tribune is a too precocious infant to
be left without guidance that may in
cline its tender intellectual growth in
the right direction. If these very SIM
pie statements shall stimulate its men
tai processes, we shall consider-that the
/ words are not wasted. We shall ex-
pect it to be prepared In due time for
Exercise Number 4. which will then be
Forthcoming, and firmly believe that 1t
viii yet reach the intellectual level
proper to those Of its age, and then be
ready for promotion to higher grade.
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