Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-12-05
CORPORATION CONTROL.
Far More Complete Supervision at Early
Date Required.

The present congress has taken long
strides in the direction Of securing
proper supervision and control by the
national government over corporations
engaged in Interstate business, and the
enormous majority of corporations OF
any size are engaged in interstate bust
ness. The passage of the railway rate
bill and only to less degree the pas
sage of the pure food bill and the pro-
vision for increasing and rendering
more effective national control over the
beef packing industry mark an impor-
tant advance in the proper direction.
In the short session it will perhaps be
difficult to do much further along this
line, and it may be best to wait until
the laws have been in operation for i
number of months before endeavOring
to increase their scope, because only op-
Grafton will show with exactneSS their
merits and their shortcomings and thus
give opportunity to define what fur
ther remedial legislation is needed.
Yet, in my Judgment, it will in the end
lie advisable in connection with the
packing house inspection law to pro-
vide for putting date on the label
and for charging the cost of inspection
to the packers. All these laws have
already justified their enactment. The
interstate commerce law, for instance,
has rather amusingly falSilied the pre-
dictions both of those who asserted
that it would ruin the railroads and Of
those who asserted that it did not go
far enough and would accomplish
nothing. During the last five months
the railroads have shown increased
earnings and some of them unusual
dividends, while during the same pc
riod the mere taking effect Of the law
has produced an unprecedented. a
hitherto unhcard Of, number of volun-
tary reductions in freightS and fares
by the railroads. Since the founding
of the commission there has never been
time of equal length in which any
thing like 50 many reduced tariffs have
been put into effect. On Aug. 81, for
instance, two days before the new law
went into effect. the commission re-
ccived notices of over 5000 separate
tariffs which represented reductions
from previous rates.
1t must not be supposed, however,
that with the passage of these laws 1t
will be possible to stop progress along
the line of increasing the power Of the
national government over the use of
capital in Interstate commerce. For
example. there will ultimately be neel
of charging the powers Of the inter
state commerce commission along sew
cral different lines, so as to give it n
larger and more efficient control over
the railroads.
Legislation the Proper Antidote.
1t cannot too often be repeated that
experience has conclusively shown the
impossibility Of securing by the actions
of nearly half Il hundred different state
legislatures anything but ineffective
chaos in the way Of dealing with the
great corporations which do not op-
crate exclusively within the limits of
any one state. In some method, wheth-
. III ~ util.cIIdl IlNtnSC law vi OtHtE
fashion. we must exercise, and that ut
IN early date, far more complete
control than at present over these
great corporations-a control that will,
among other things. prevent the evils
! Of excessive Overcapitalization and
that will compel the disclosure by each
big corporation of its stockholders and
OF its properties and business, whether
owned directly or through subsidiary
or affiliated corporations. This will
tend to put stop to the securing of
inordinate profits by favored individu
ais at the expense whether Of the gen
eral public, the stockholders or the
Nageworkcrs. Our effort should be not
SO much to prevent consolidation as
such, but SO to supervise and control
1t as to see that it results in no harm
to the people. The reactionarv OF
ultra conservative apologists for the
misuse Of wealth assail the effort ia
secure such control as step toward
socialism. As a matter Of fact, 1t is
these reactiouaries and ultra conserva