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

return full justice to others. The condi- tions of railroad activity, the conditions of our immense interstate commerce, arc such as to make the central government alone competent to exercise full super vision and control.
 'The grave abuses in individual cases of railroad management in the past repre- sent wrongs not merely to the general public. but, above all, wrongs to fair dealing and honest corporations and men of wealth. because they excite popular angef and distrust which from the very nature of the case tends to include in the sweep of it's resentment good and bad alike. From the standpoint of the public I cannot too earnestly say that as soon as the natural and proper resent ment aroused by these abuses becomes indiscriminate and minimizing, it also be- comes not merely unwise and unfair, but calculated to defeat the very ends which those feeling it have in view. There has been plenty of dishonest work by corpora tions in the past. There will not be the slightest let-up in the effort to hunt down and punish every dishonest man. But the bulk of our business is honestly done. In the natural indignation the people feel over the dishonesty. 1t Is all essential that they should not lose their heads and get drawn into an indiscriminate raid upon all corporations, all people of wealth, whether they do well or i'll. Out of any such wild movement good will not come cannot come, and never has come. On the contrary the surest way to invite reaction Is to follow the lead of either demagogue or visionary in q sweeping assault upon property values and upon public confidence, which would work in calculable damage in the business world and would produce such distrust of the agitators that in the revulsion the dis trust would extend to honest men who In sincere and sane fashion, are trying to remedy the evils
 The antitrust law should not be re- pealed; but it should be made both more efficient and more in harmony with ac- tual conditions. It should be so amend ed as to forbid onlya the kind of com bination which does harm to the general public. such amendment to be accom- panied by, or to be an incident of a grant of supervisory power to the gov ernment over these big concerns engaged in interstate business This should be accompanied by provision for the com pulsory publication of accounts and the subjection of books and papers to the inspection of the government officials. A beginning has already been made for such supervision by the establishment of the bureau of corporations.
 The antitrust law should not prohibit combinations that do no injustice to the
 
 which is on the whole of benefit to the public. But even if this feature of the law were abolished, there would remain as an equally objectionable feature the difficulty and delay now incident to it's enforcement. The government must now submit to irksome and repeated delay before obtaining a final decision of the courts upon proceedings instituted, and even a favorable decree may mean an empty victory. Moreover, to attempt to control these corporations by lawsuits means to Impose upon both the depart ment of justice and the courts an impos- sible burden; it is not feasible to carry on more than a limited number of such suits. Such a law to be really effective must of course be administered by an executive body, and not merely by means of lawsuits The design should be to prevent the abuses incident to the crea- ton of unhealthy and improper combina- tions, instead of waiting until they are in existence and then attempting to de- stroy them by civil of criminal proceed ings
 A combination should not be tolerated if 1t abuse the power acquired by com bination to the public detriment. No corporation or association of any kind should be permitted to engage in foreign or interstate commerce that is formed for the purpose of, or whose operations create, monopoly or general control of t--e production, sale or distribution of any one or more of the prime necessities of life or articles of general use and ne- cessity. Such combintions are against public policy; they violate the common law; the doors of the courts are closed to those who are parties to them, and I believe the Congress can close the chan nels of interstate commerce against them for It's protection. The law should make prohibitions and permisslons as clear and definite as possible, leaving the least possible room for arbitrary action, or allegation of such action, on the part of the executive. or of divergent interpre- tations by the courts. Among the points to be aimed at should be the prohibition of unhealthy competition, such as by rendering service at an actual loss for tl.e purpose of crushing out competition, the prevention of imitation of capital, and the prohibition of corporations making exclusive trade with itself a condition O. having any trade with itself. Reason able agreements between, or combna- tions of, corporations should be permit ted, provided they are first submitted to and approved by some appropriate government body.
 The Congress has the power to char ter corporations to engage in interstate and foreign commerce, and a general law can be enacted under the provisions of which existing corporations could take out federal charters and new federal cor porations could be created. An essential provision of such a law should be a methodAof predetermining by some fed eral board or commission whether the applicant for federal char ter was an association or com bination within the restrictions of the federal law. Provision should also be made for complete publicity in all mat ters affecting the public and complete protection to the investing public and th5 shareholders in the matter of issu- ing corporate securities. If an incor- poration law is not deemed advisable, a license act for big interstate corporations might be enacted; or combination of the two might be tried The supervision established might be analogous to that now exercised over national banks. At least the antitrust act should be sup plemented by specific prohibitions of the methods which experience has shown have been of most service in enabling monopolistic combinations to crush out competition. The real owners of a cor poration should be compelled to do busi- ness in their own name. The right to hold stock in other corporations should hereafter denied to interstate corpora tions, unless on approval by the proper government officials. and prerequisite to such approval should be the listing with the government of all owners and stockholders, both by the corporation owning such stock and by the corpora tion in which such stock is owned.
 To confer upon the national govern ment. in connection with the amendment l advocate in the antitrust law, power of supervision over big business con corns engaged in interstate commerce, would benefit them as it has benefited the national banks In the recent busi-