The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-21

trust act of 1890 was passed. President
Cleveland in his last message of De
Gem Der, 1896, had said:
Though congress has attempted to deal
with this matter by legislation, the laws
passed for that purpose thus far have
proved ineffective, not because of any
lack Of disposition or attempt to enforce
them, but simply because the laws them
reach the difficulty. If the insufficiencies
of existing laws can be remedied by fur
Their legislation, it should be done. The
fact must be recognized however that all
federal legislation on this subject may
fall short of its purpose because of in
herent obstacles and also because of the
complex character of our governmental
system, which, while making federal au-
thority supreme within ITS sphere, mas
carefully limited that sphere by metes
and bounds that can not be trans
crossed"
At every election. the regulation of
trusts had been the football of cam
paign oratory and the subject of
many insincere declarations.
Our Republican administration has
taken up the subject in a practical
sensible way as a business rather than
a political question, saying what it
really meant, and doing what lay at
! its hand to be done to accomplish
upon which the government proceed
/ ed were stated by the president in his
| message of December, 1902. He said;
"A fundamental base of civilization is
the inviolability of property; but this is in
no wise Inconsistent with the right of So
ciety to regulate the exercise of the ar
tiflclal powers which it conferS upon the
owners of property, under the name Of
corporate franchises, in such way AS
to prevent the misuse OF these pow
I'VE can do nothing of good in the way
o. feguI1Illg ana super NlslnS tues3e 90
porat1ons until we nix clearly IN our
minds that we are not attacking the cor
pOrations, but endeavOring to do away
with any evil in them. We are not hos
tile to Them we are merely determined
that they shall be so handled as to sub
serve the pubnc good we draw
the line against misconduct, not against
wealth
In curbing and regulating the combi-
nations of capital which are or may be-
come Injurious to the public we must
be careful not to stop the great enter
the cost of production, not to abandon
the place which our country has won IN
the leadership of the international INDUS
trial world, not to strike down wealth
with the result of closing factories and
/ in the streets and leaving the farmer
without a market for the wheat he
I believe that monopolies, unjust dis
/ ordinations, which prevent or cripple
competition, fraudulent over-capitallza-
/ ton, and other evils in trust organize
/ lions and practices which injuriOuSly at
tect interstate uauet can De pteNeille
under the power OF the congress TO reg
/ ulate commerce with foreign nations and
| among the several states through reguI5,e-
/ lions and requirements operating uIectly
/ upon such commerce, the instrumentall-
i ties thereof and those engaged therein
Congress Passed Three Laws.
After long consideration. congress
4 passed three practical statutes-on
/ the 18th of February, 1908, an act to
/ expedite hearings in suits in enforce
ment of the antitrust act; on the
18th of February, 1903, the act Gre
ating a new department of commerce
/ and labor with a bureau of corpora
! lions, having authority to secure SyS-
tematic information regarding the or
! ganization and operation of corpora
] lions engaged iI7T3nterState commerce;
and on the 19th"of February, 1903, an
4 act enlarging the powers of the in
1 terstate commerce commission and of
4 the courts, to deal with secret rebates
1 in transportation charges, which are
/ the chief means by which the trusts
crush out their smaller competitors.
The attorney general has gone on
+ in the same practical way, not to talk
! about the trusts but to proceed
against the trusts by law for their
/ regulation. In separate suits fourteen
/ of the great railroads of the country
/ have been restrained by injunction
/ from giving illegal rebates to the ia
vored shippers, who by means of
/ them We're driving out the smaller
I shippers and mOnopolizing the grain
/ and meat bushes of the country The
/ beef trust was put under Injunction.
/ The officers of the railroads enga gei
/ in the cotton carrying pool affecting
/ all that great industry of the south,
were indicted and have abandoned
/ their com binauOn- The Northern
Securities company which undertook
/ by combining in one ownership the
capital stocks of the Northern Pa
cif1c and Great Northern railroads to
end traffic competition in the north
west, has been destroyed by a Wig
orous prosecution expedited and
/ brought to a speedy and effective
| conclusion in the supreme court I'M
! der the act of February II, 1903 The
attorney general says:
Here, then, are four phases of the at
/ tack on the combinations in restraint OF
trade and commerce-tlle railroad injunc>
| ton suits, the cotton pool cases. the beef
/ trust cases, and the Northern Securities
case The first relates to the monopoly
| produced by secret and preferential IA ties
/ for railroad transportation. the second to
railroad traffic pooling; the third to a
| combination of independent corporations
/ to FIX and maintain e&tortionate prices for
meats; and the fourth to a corpora ton
organized to merge itself into the control
| Of parallel ana competing lines OF rail-