The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-08-12

LJA IEAAlEAlE bA l44G AEt VI ttJ Ak Nt--@-NN~9 " every device. legal and illegal. Very many of these men seem to think that the alternative is simply between sub mitting to the mild kind of government tai control We advocate and the abso- Iute freedom to do whatever they think best. They are greatly in error. Eth CT they will have to submit to reason able supervision and regulation by the national authorities, or else they will ultimately have to submit to govern mental action of a far more drastic type. Personally. l think our people would be most unWise if they let any exasperation due to the acts of certain great corporations drive them into drastic action, and I should oppose such action. But the great corpora tions are themselves to blame if by their opposition to what is legal and just they foster the popular feeling which tells for such drastic action.
 Some great corporations resort to every technical expedient to render eil- forcement of the law impossible, and their obstructive tactics and refusal to acquiesce in the policy of the law have taxed to the utmost the machinery of the Department of Justice. In my judg- ment congress may well inquire wheth- CT it should not seek other means for carrying into effect the law. l believe that all corporations engaged in inter- state commerce should be under the su- perYision of the national government. I do not believe in taking steps hastily or rashly, and it may be that all that is necessary in the imrnediate future is to pass an interstate-cOmmerce bill conferring upon some branch of the eX- ecutive government the power of effec- tive action to remedy the abuses in connection with railway transportation. But in the end, and in my judgment at a time not very far off, we shall have to, or at least we shall find that we ought to, take further action as re- gards all corporations doing interstate business. The enormous increase in in terstate trade, resulting from the in- dustrial development of the last quar- ter of a century, makes it proper that the federal government should, so far as may be necessary to carry into effect it's national policy, assume a degree of administrative control of these great corporations.
 It may well be that we shall find that the only effective way of exercising this supervision is to require all corpora tionS engaged in interstate commerce to produce proof satisfactory, say, to the Department of Commerce, that they are not parties to any contract or combination or engaged in any mono- poly in interstate trade in violation of the antitrust law, and that their con duct on certain other specified points is proper; and, moreover, that these cor porations shall agree, with penalty of forfeiture of their right to engage in such commerce, to furnish any evidence of any kind as to their trade between the states whenever so required by the Department of Commerce.
 It is the almost universal policy of the several states, provided by statute, that foreign corporations may lawfully conduct business within their bounda- ries only when they produce certificates that they have complied with the re- quirements of their respective states; in other words, that corporations shall not enpoy the privileges and irnmuni- ties afforded by the state governments without first complying with the policy of their laws. Now the benefits which corporations engaged in interstate trade enjoy under the United States government are incalculable; and in respect of such trade the jurisdiction of the federal government is supreme when it chooses to exercise it.
 When, as it now the case many of the great corporations consistently strain the last resources of legal tech nicality to avoid obedience to a law for the reasonable regulation of their busi- ness, the only way effectively to meet this attitude on their part is to give to the Executive Department of the gov ! ernment a more direct and therefore more efficient supervision and control of their management.
 | In speaking against the abuses conl- 1 mitted by certain very wealthy corpo7 rations or individuals, and of the neces- sity of seeking so far as it can safely 1 be done to remedy these abuses there 1 lS always udIl5CA IeSL N IltIl IS SdIu lilLiy y be misinterpreted as an attack upon men of means generally. Now it can not too often be repeated in a republic
 like ours that the only way by which it is possible permanently to benefit the condition of the less able and less fortu-
 nate, is so to shape our policy that all | industrious and efficient people who act 1 decently may be benefited; and this l means, of course, that the benefit will
 come even more to the more able and
 more fortunate. If, under such circum- stances, the less fortunate man is
 moved by envy of his more fortunate l brother to strike at the conditions un-
 derwhich they have both, though une- l qually, prospered, he may rest assured
 that while the result may be damaging
 to the other man, it will be even more 1 damaging to himself, Of course, I
 am now speaking of prosperity that
 comes under normal and proper condi- | tions.
 In our industrial and social system
 the interests of all men are so closely l interwoven that in the immense major | ity of cases the straight-dealing man
 who by ingenuity and industry bene- 1 fits himself must also benefit others.
 The man of great productive capacity | .s-I.