The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-04

already come and can not be avoided or undoneh and that the public at large can only protect itself from certain evil effects of this business centralizaton by proYid- ing better methods for the exercise of control through the authority already cen tralized in the national government by the constitution itself. There must be no halt in the healthy constructive course of action which this nation has elected to pursue, and has steadily pursued, dur ing the last six years, as shown both in the legislation of the Congress and the administration of the law by the de- partment of justice The most vital need is in connection with the railroads. As to these, in my judgment there should now be either national incorporation act or a law licensing railway companies to engage ill interstate commerce upon, certain conditions. The law should be so framed as to give the interstate com merce commission power to pass upon the future issue of securities, with ample means should be provided to enable the commission, wheneevr in it's judgmenEit 1t is necessary to make a physical Xalua- ton of any railroad. As 1 stated in my message to the Congress a year ago, railroads should be given power to enter into agreements subject to these agree nents being made public in minute de- tail and to the consent of the Interstate commerce commission being first ob- tained. Until the national government as- sumes proper control of interstate cont merce, in the exercise of the authority 1t already possesses 1t will be impossible either to give to or to get from the rall- roads full justice The railroads and all other great corporations will do well to recognize that this control must come; the only question is as to what govern mental body can most wisely exercise it. The courts will determine the limits within which the federal authority can exercise it. and there will still remain ample work within each state Tor the railway commission of that state; and the national interstate commerce com mission will work in harmony with the several states commissions, each within it's own province to achieve the desired end.
 Sherman Antitrust Law.
 Moreover, in my judgment there should be additional legislation looking to ths proper control of the great business con- cerns engaged in interstate business, thls control to be exervised for their own benefit and prosperity no less than Toy the. protection of investors and of the general public As l have repeatedly said in messages to the Congress and elsewhere, experience has definitely shown not merely the unwisdom but the futllity of endeav6ring to put stop to all puSl- ness combination. Modern industrial conditions are such that combination IS not only necessary but inevitable. It IS so in the world of business just as it is so in the world of labor, and it is as Idle to desire to put an end to all cor porations, to all big combinations or capital as to desire to put an end to combinations of labor Corporation and labor union alike have come to stay. Each if properly managed Is source of good and not evil. Whenever in either there is evil, it should bep romptly held to account; bu 1t should receive hearty encouragement so long as 1t is properly managed. It is profoundly immoral to but or keep on the statute books law, noinnally in the interest of public moral ity,' that really puts premium upon public immortality, by undertaking to Tor bid honest men. from doing what must be done under modern business conditions, so that tho Jaw itself provides that US own infraction must be the condition pre- cedent upon business success. To aim at the accomplishment of too much usually means the accomplishment of too little, and often the doing of positive damage. In my message to the Congress year ago. in speaking of the antitrust laws l said:
 ''The actual working of our laws has shown that the effort to prohibit all com- binatlon, good or bad, is noxious where it Is not ineffective. Combination of capi- tall like combination of labor, Is neces- sary element in our uresent industrial system. It is not possible completely to prevent it; and if 1t were possible, such complete prevention would do damage to the body polite. What we need IS not vainly to try to prevent all combi- nation, but to secure such rigorous and adequate control and supervision of the Combinations as to prevent their fnJur- ing the public, or existing in such forms as inevitably to threaten injury
 It is unfortunate that our present laws should forbid all combinations instead of sharply discriminating between those combinations which do good and those combinations which do evil Often railroads would like to combine for the purpose of preventing big shipper from maintaining improper advantages at the expense of small shippers and of the gen eral public. Such combination. instead of being forbidden by law, should be favored It is a public evil to have on the statute books law incapable of full enforcement, because both judges and jures realize that it's full enforce ment would destroy the business of the country: for the result is to make decent men violators of the law against their
 " havior of the willful wrongdoers. Such a result in turn tends to throw the de- cent man and the willful wrongdoer into close association. and in the end to drag down the former to the latters level; for the man who becomes a lawbreaker in one way unhappily tends to lose all re- spect for law and to be willing to break 1t in many ways. No more scathing con demnaton could be visited upon a law than Is contained in the words of tho interstate commerce commission when, in commenting upon the fact that the nu- merous joint traffic associations do tech nically violate the law, they say: "The decision of the United States Supreme court in the Trans Mississippi case and the Joint Traffic association case has produced no practical effect upon the railway operations of the country. Such associations. in fact, exist now as they did before these decisions, and with the same general effect. In justice to all parties we ought probably to add that it is difficult to see how our interstate railways could be operated with due re- gard to the interest of the shipper and the railway without concerted action of the kind afforded through these associa- tions.'
 This means that the law as construed by the supreme court is such that the business of the country cannot be con- ducted without breaking it.
 As I have elsewhere said:
 "All this is substantially what I have said over and over again. Surely it ought not to be necessary to say that 1t in no shape or way represents any hos tility to corporations such. On the contrary, it means a frank recognition of the fact that combinations of capital like combinations of labor. are natural