Evening star., 1906-09-06

BATH, Me-, September GA large audi
ence was addressed by William H. Taft,
Secretary of War. at Alameda Hall here
last night The Secretary was referred to
| by United States Consul Harold F. Sewall
OF Hawaii as the probable successor of
President Roosevelt. Secretary Taft said
in part:
For the sake of clearness in examining
into the character of the evils and abuses
which need restraint and punishment, we
may divide corporations guilty of them
into industrial corporations, organized for
the purpose Of manufacture and sale of
merchandise, and into railroad and other
corporations, organized for the transporta-
tion of passengers and goods. Let us deal
first with industrial corporations. The val
liable consideration moving to the public
for comforting the privilege and franchise
necessary in the Incorporation of capital
in such corporations Is the public benefit
to be derived in the lowering of prices.
The temptation to the managers however.
when the enterprises become very large Is
to suppress competition and maintain
prices and thus to deny to the public its
attained.s and to appropriate to the cor
porate owners all the profit derived from
improved facilities Of production. One
method of suppressing competition Is by
agreements between all the large concerns
engaged In the same business to limit the
output and maintain prices. Such agree
ments are usually secret, and are difficult
for public officials to obtain proof Of; but
when these agreements do become public
and are successfully prosecuted. this
method Is abandoned and the independent
corporations that acted together under
secret agreements to maintain prices are
absorbed into one great corporation, SO
that the large proportion Of the producing
capital in single industry is placed under
trust thus formed is excluded by ingenious
contracts of sale with middlemen, dis
tributors and retail dealers, who are CO.
creed by the agents of the trust into
drawal OF all patronage from smaller inde-
pendent and competing producers through
the knowledge and fear that the trust in
times OF active demand for its products
Will either refuse to sell or will sell only
at discriminating prices to those who do
not comply with its conditions Of sale.
Government Movement Against Trusts
The growth of corporate enterprises to
such size as to absorb particular indus
tries attracted attention between 1880 and
1880, and a democratic House of Repre-
sentatives. in the last half Of Mr.. Cleve-
lands administration, directed a committee
to make an investigation into the subject
OF trusts and monopolies in this country.
great deal Of evidence was taken, but
remedy by which the recognized evils should
be suppressed, and simply referred the mat
ter to the next Congress-, then known to
be republican. That republican Congress
of 1880, in the so-called Sherman Anti
Trust Act" declared all agreements or
contracts in restraint Of interstate trade
or commerce to be Illegal and an offense,
and subject to fine and Imprisonment, and
the remedy to suppress them by bill and
injunction in equity was specifically con-
ferred. BY another section the establish
Ing Of monopolies in any commodity in in
terstate trade was denounced as an offense
against the United States, and similar
remedies were provided. For law which
affected such tremendous interests, its Ian
guage was not full of useful detail in the
description of the offenses which were de-
nounced. 1t would seem as If Congress
itself knew that the evil existed, but had
most indefinite idea of how 1t was to be
described, and the matter was apparently
turned over to the courts, cases arose
and decisions were invoked, to work out
the exact character of the offenses de-
nounced and the limitations which were to
be introduced into the statute in order that
the Interpretation of it might accord with
what was practicable and reasonable. Con-
strued literally, this statute could be used
to punish combinations of the most useful
character. like partnerships and other busi-
ness arrangements. conceded by all to be
legitimate and proper, and the difficulty
in its construction has been to draw line,
effective to suppress the real evil aimed at
by the legislature and to furnish a proper
and clear rule for the guidance of business
men, while not interfering with legitimate
combinations which Congress had no pur-
pose to prevent. 1t was not to be expected
that such statute. dependent as 1t was
upon, judicial Interpretation to make it
clear. could operate effectively at once:
and the slow course of judicial decision had
to be awaited before the general purpose
of the act could be attained.
Right of Congress.
More than this 1t was plain that the only
ground for federal interference was the
right of Congress to regulate interstate
commerce, and, although these trusts did
business which was largely interstate, it
was often difficult in proof to show such a
direct relation between the making of the
combination and interstate trade to
make clear federal jurisdiction. And yet
the scope of the evils was national, and
united and effective action by state legis-
latures and state executives was hardly to
be expected
Mr. Roosevelt, as President from the very
first. devoted his great energies to faclli-
tating and pressing on the work Of sup
pressing the trust evil and the abuses OF
organized capital.
Reform in Railway Regulation.
The necessity for reform in the regu-
lation of the railways of this country, and
a closer governmental supervision than tha.
afforded by the interstate commerce act Of
1887, was clear to Mr.. Roosevelt. The
connection between the monopoly of the
industrial combinations and the railway
abuses emphasized this. The interstate
commerce act has been amended from time
to time since Its passage and in the first
administration of Mr. Roosevelt the subject
of rebates In the so-called Elkins bill was
treated in more detail than in the original
interstate commerce act, and was made
more effective in that way; but still the
power of the interstate commerce comnlIs-
sion over the carrier was limited to deieI.
mining whether a rate was unreasonable,
and its order requiring railroad company
| to fix reasonable rate could only be made
effective through a mandatory decree of
federal court. Thisn only involved delay
| in the enforcement of its orders. but took
away from the commission the power and
| dignity essential to make 1t respected by
| the railroad companies and greatlx limf.ed