The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-09-04


conspiring together in restraint Of
trade are threatened with punishment
all they have TO do now is to dissolve
their separate corporations and turn
their property over to a new corpora
ton. The corporation can proceed to
do the same thing that the separate
corporations attempted and yet not vio-
late the law. We need therefore new
legislation, and the republican party
not only fails to enact such legislation,
but fails even to promise it. The demoi
ocratic party must be prepared to pro-
pose new n efficient legislation.
Recent Investigations ave brought
to light the fact that nearly all the
cr~OOkedness revealed in the manage
ment Of u large corporations has been
due to the duplication of directorates.
A group of men organized, or obtained
control of, several corporations doing
business with each other and then pro-
ceeded to swindle the stockholders Of
the various corporations for which
they acted.
Many of the trusts control prices by
the same methods, the same grOun
men secure control of several COM
peting corporations and the manage
ment is thus consolidated. 1t IS worth
while to consider whether q blow may
not be struck at the trusts by a law
making it illegal for the same person
to act as director or officer Of the two
corporations which deai with each
other or are engaged N the anne gen.
eral business.
A still more far reaching remedy
was proposed by the democratic plat
form of 1900, namely, the requiring Of
corporations to take out a federal Ii
cense before engaging in interstate
commerce. This remedy is simple,
easily applied and comprehensive.
If corporations were required to
AXE out a federal license the fed
eral government could then issue
a license upon terms and condi-
tiOrt which would protect the
public. A corporation differs from a
human being in that it has no natural
rights and as all of it's rights are de-
rived from the statutes it can be linn
tied or restrained according as the
public welfare may require. The con-
troll which congress has over interstate
commerce is complete. No party can
long be credited with sincerity if it
SOIllt1liluS Tic uSIS Will "OIuS anu
then permits the trusts to employ all
the instrumentalities of interstate
commerce in the carrying out of their
various plans. 1t is far easier to pre-
vent a monopoly than to watch it and
punish it. and this prevention can be
accomplished in a practical way by re-
fuSeing to license to n corporation
which controls more than a certain
proportion of the total product-this
proportion to be arbitrarily fixed at a
point which will give free operation
to competition.
THE TARIFF.
The tariff question is very closely
allied to the trust question and the
reduction of the tariff furnishes a
means of limiting the trusts. While
absolute free trade would not necess-
arily make a trust impossible still it
is probable that very lew manufac-
turing establishments would dare en-
ter into a trust if the president were
empowered to put upon the free list
articles competing with those controll-
ed by a trust. | cannot permit this
opportunity to pass without express
ing the opinion that the principles en-
bodied in the protective tariff have
been the fruitful source of a great
deal of political corruption as we'll as
the support of many of our most mi
quitOus trusts. 1t is difficult to con
denim the manufacturers for uniting
to take advantage of a high tariff
schedule when the schedule is framed
on the theory that the industries need
all the protection given and it is not
likely that the beneficiarieS of these
schedules will consent to their reduc-
ton SO long as the public waits for
the tariff to be reformed by it's friends.
But one of the worst features
of a tariff levied not for revenue, for
the avOwed purpose of protection, is
that it fosters the idea that men
should use their votes to advance their
own financial interests. For a gener-
alton the fat" has been fried out of
the manufacturers by the republican
campaign committee and then the
manufacturers have been reimbursed
by legislation. With the public con-
science educated to believe that this
open purchase of legislation was Ell
tirely o no wonder that insur-
ance companies have used the money
of their pOlicyholders to carry cleo
tions: no wonder that trusts have
fastened to purchase immunity by lib
eral donations. How can We draw a
moral between the senator or ON
gresham elected by trusts to prevent
hostile legislation and the senator Or
congressman kept in congress by the
manufacturers to secure friendly leg
islation? The party which justified
the n form of bribery cannot be
relied upon to condem the other.
There never was a time when tariff
reform could be more easily entered
upon for the manufacturers by selling
abroad cheaper than at home as many
of them do, have not only shown their
ingratitude towards those who built
the tariff wall for them, but they have
demonstrated their ability to sell n
competition with the world.
THE RAILROADS.