The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1906-09-06

than the failure to enforce the law against rich
criminals while it is rigidy enforced against petty
Offenders. But 1t Is not sufficient to enforce ex
listing laws. If ten corporations conspiring to-
gether in restraint of trade are threatened with
punishment, all they have to do now is to dis
solve their separate corporations and turn their
property over to new corporation The
corporation can proceed to do the same thing
that the separate corporations attempted and yet
not violate the law. We need therefore new
legislation and the republican party not only fails
to enact such legislation but fails even to prom
Use 1t. The democratic party must be prepared to
propose legislation which will be sufi cient.
Recent Investigations have brought to light
the fact that nearly all the crookedness revealed
in the management of large corpora
lions have been due largely to the dupli-
cation of directorates. A group of men
organized or obtained control Of several corpor-
ations doing business with each other and then
proceeded to swndle the stockholders of the va
rious corporations for which they acted. No man
can serve two masters and the director who at
tempts to do SO will fail, no matter how much
money he makes, before his failure is discovered
Many OF the trusts control prices by the same
methods The same group of men secure control
of several competing corporations and the man
agement is thus consolidated. 1t is worth while
to consider whether a blow may not be struck at
the trusts by law making it illegal for the same
person to act as director or officer of two cor
porations which deal with each other or are en-
gagged in the general business.
"A still more far-reaching remedy was pro-
posed by the democratic platform of 1900 namely
the requiring of corporations to take out a federal
license before engaging in interstate commerce.
This remedy Is simple, easily applied and COM
prehensve. The requiring of license would not
embarass legitimate corporatons-it would scarce
ly inconvenience them-while it would confine
the predatory corporations to the state of their
origin Just federal license to sell liquor
leaves the possessor of the license to sell only in
accordance with the laws of the state in which
he resides so corporate license granted by a
federal commission would not interfere with the
right OF each state to regulate foreign corpora
tons doing business within it's borders
If corporations were required to take out a
federal license the federal government could then
issue the license upon the terms and conditions
which would protect the public. A corporation
differs from human being in that it has no nat
ural rights and all of it's rights are derived
from the statutes it can be limited or restrained
according as the public welfare may require. The
control which congress has over interstate COM
merce is complete and if congress can prevent the
transportation OF lottery ticket through the
mails, by the express companies or by freight it
certainly forbid the use of the mails the
railways and the telegraph lines to any corpora
ton which is endeavoring to mpnopolize an article
OF commerce. and no party can long be credited
with sincerity If it condemns the trusts with
words only and then permits the trusts to employ
all the nstrumentalities of interstate commerce
In the carrying out of their nefarious plans 1t is
far easier to prevent monopoly than to watch
1t and punish it, and this prevention can be ac
complished in practical way by refusing license
to any corporation which controls more than
certain proportion of the total product-ths pro-
portion to be arbitrarily fixed at point which
will give free operation to competition
"The tariff question is very closely allied to
the trust question and the reduction of the tariff
furnishes easy means of limiting the extortion
which the trusts can practice While abso
lutte free trade would not necessarily make
a trust impossible, still it is probable
that very few manufacturing establishments
would dare to enter into a trust If the president
were empowered to put upon the free list articles
competing with those controlled by trust
While | shall take occasion at an early day to
consider the tariff question more at length I
can not permit this opportunity to pass without
expressing the opinion that the principle embod-