The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-08-31

w l4lG IGSLI clllL OL VI N''N0' NNS III lGSlSs lation which will make private mo- nopoly impossible.
 There must be no mistaking of the issue and no confusing of the line of battle. The trust, as an institution, will have few open defenders. The policy of the trust nnagnates will be to Iinsist upon reasonable legislation" and then they will rely upon their pow CT to corrupt legislatures and intimi- date executives to prevent the applica- tion of any remedies which will inter- fere with the trusts. Our motto must be: "A private monopoly is indefensi- lble and intolerable" and our plan of attack must contemplate the total and complete overthrow of the monopoly principle in industry.
 We need not quarrel over remedies. We must show ourselves willing to support any remedy which promises substantial advantage to the people in their warfare against monopoly. | Something is to be expected from the enforcement of the criminal cause of | the Sherman antitrust law but this law must be enforced not againsta few trusts as at present, but against all trusts. and the aim must be to inn prison the guilty, not merely to recov- CT fine. What is @ fine of a thousand dollars, or even ten thousand dollars, to a trust which makes a hundred thousand dollars while the trial is in going to be enforced it ought to be re- pealed. If Imprisonment is too severe Q punishment for the eninently re- speotable gentlemen who rob eighty millions of people of hundreds of mil lions of dollars annually the language of the statute ought to be changed, for nothing is more calculated to breed anarchy than the failure to enforce the law against rich criminals while it is rigidly enforced against petty offend ere.
 But it is not sufficient to enforce ex- isting laws; if ten corporations con- spring together in restraint of trade are threatened with punishment all they have to do now is to dissolve their l separate corporations and turn their property over to new corporation. The new corporation can proceed to do the same thing that the separate cor porations attempted and yet not Vlo- late the law. We need thereby new legislation, and the republican party not only fails to enact such legislation, but fails even to promise it. The dem- ocratic party must be prepared to pro- pose new and efficient legislation,
 Recent Investigations have brought to light the fact that nearly all the Icrookedness revealed in the manage Iment of our large corporations has been due to the duplication of dlrecto- rates A group of men organized, or obtained control of, several corpora tions doing business with each other and then proceeded to Swindle the stockholders of the various corpora tions for which they acted, No man can serve two masters and the director who attempt to do so will fail no matter how much money he makes be- fore his failure is discovered, Many of ., the trusts control prices by the same methods, the same group of men secure control of several competing corpora tions and the management is thus consolidated. It is worth while to con- slider whether blow may not be
 struck at the trusts by a law making i
 illegal for the same person to act a director or officer of two corporations which deal with each other or are en. gagged in the same general business A still more far reaching remedy was proposed by the democratic platform O 1900, namely the requiring of corpo rations to take out q federal license be
 fore engaging in interstate commerce This remedy is simple easily applied land comprehensive. The requiring O
 Q license would not embarrass legiti Innate corporations-it would scarcel! inconvenience them-while it woult confine the predatory corporations t'
 the state of their origin. Just as a II .cense to sell liquor leaves the possesso
 of the license to sell only in accordan
 with the laws of the state in which h.
 resides so a corporate license grante
 by a federal commission would not in
 terfere with the right of each state t
 regulate foreign corporations doint business within it's borders. If corpo
 rations were required to take out ;
 federal license the federal governmen
 could then issue the license upon term
 and conditions which would protect thu
 public A corporation differs from
 human being in that it has no natura
 rights and as all of its rights are de
 rived from the statutes it can be limi
 ted or restrained according as the pub
 lie welfare may require, The contrc which congress has over interstate commerce is complete, and if congress
 can prevent the transportation of {
 lottery ticket through the mails, by th
 express companies or by freight it cal
 certainly forbid the use of the mails
 the railways and the telegraph lines tt
 any corporation which is endeavorin to monopolize an article of commerce and no party can long be credited wit
 sincerity if 1t condemns the trusts wit
 words only and then permits the trust
 to employ all the instrumentalities O 1, interstate commerce in the carrying , out of their nefarious plans. It is ia
 easier to prevent a monopoly than t
 watch 1t and punish It. and this pre- vention can be accomplished in prac , tical way by refusing license to an ] corporation which controls more thai
 certain proportions of the total produc , this proportion to be trtificially ike,
 at a point which will gve free opera tion to competition. The tariff question
 is very closely allied to the trust ques
 tion and the reduction of the tarlt
 furnishes an easy means of llmitin! l tla aNLnrti.ns rLinh trusLs cam nrac