The Falls City tribune., 1904-11-04
ANTITRUST LAWS.
They Have Been Enforced Wherever
Proper Cases Have Been Presented.

There are in the United States over
500 industrial trusts and organized mo-
~nopolies. Their aggregate authorized
capital amounts to 81. 19S.54I,32I, such
q stupendous sum as 70 make the petty
capitalist gasp in establishment. But II
is not all tangible; a good deal is mere
figures, scratches OH paper. Many OF the
companies are playthings for fnanclers
who require toys; others are dummies;
! others comatose affairs. These corpora
tons are born in every State, and State
laws are responsible for their creation
laws with which the national government
has nothing to do, and could not nave,
unless by usurpation; but IT does take a
hand when these concerns undertake III
t~erstate transactions in restraint of trade
or foreign commerce.. 1t is nothing
against the Republican party that such
corporations have a being; their own
parents, the States that gave them olrtn'
are the parties responsible for their
wrong doing N those States. No federal
court or officer can enforce the common
law OF a State; as for the United States,
| there is no common law, as Mr.. Roose-
welt has said. Mr.. Parker takes issue
with this declaratiol and dismlsses 1t
from his discussion by saying it IS a
! question mot to be determined by the
| President or by a candidate for the pres
idency," but by the judiciary, and it has
| been judicially decided that common law
! principles could be applied in United
States courts in interstate commerce
! cases.
There are United States statutes for
such cases, so that Judge Parker's prom
Use to favor such further legislation
| within constitutional limitations as will
| best promote and safeguard the interests
of the people" is entirely gratuitous I'M
less he meditates a repeal Of the laws
already existing. These laws are OF Re-
publican creation and safeguard the in
| terests Of the people so far as State stat
| utes will permit. A Republican Con-
gress passed the Sherman antitrust law
and a Republican Preside nt approved it
July 2, 1890. In 1908 a Republican Con-
gress passed and a Republican President
approved an act expediting antitrust lti-
CATION. In the appropriation bill for
1903 was a paragraph providing funds
for prosecuting such suits, and the def
cheney bill for the same year authorized
legal aid. The Elkins-Roberts law, pass
ed and approved in 1903, bore upon this
trust question and was the work of a
Republican Congress and President.
The government has not 1unked in en-
forcing the antitrust laws where ZERO
| per case could be made out. 1t kToeked
the financial sawdust out of the Northern
Securities Company in 1903. The MS
souri, beef trust" case in 19O3 ended
with heavy fines against the defendants
who were found guilty of violatirsas the
antitrust law. In 1902 the President
ordered the prosecution Of certain Illinois
packers for violating the Sherman anti
trust statute, and a permanent injunc-
ton was the result. These antitrust
suits are not the justice-of-the-peace af-
fairs the Democrats are trying to make
them out to be. The government must
be sure it is right and able to carry its
points before it acts; the best legal tai
ent of the country is put up against it.
and defeat for it would involve ruinous
consequences.
What the Democrats might do in these
trust matters no one. not even them
selves, can guess; they can't do any bet
ter; they are likely to do worse.