The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-12-25

! uSPu Is III CDUuSCtlOH Will Tue loll-
roads. AS to these. in my Judgment
there should now be either national
incorporation act or law licensing
, railway companies to engage in inter
state commerce upon certain condl-
/ tions. The law should be so framed
as to give to the Interstate Com
: merce Commission power to pass
upon the future issue Of securities,
while ample means should be pro-
vided to enable the Commission,
whenever in it's judgment it is neces-
sary, to make a physical valuation OF
any railroad. AS | stated in my Mes
sage to the Congress a year ago, rail-
| roads should be given power. to enter
into agreements, subject to these
! agreements being made public in mi
| mute detail and to the consent Of the
Interstate Commerce Commission be-
| ing first obtained. Until the Nation
| al Government assumes proper con-
| troll of interstate commerce, in the
exercise of the authority it already
possesses, it will be impossible
either to give to or to get from
the railroads full justice. The
! railroads and all other great corpor-
ations will do we'll to recognize that
| this control must come; the only
question is as to what governmental
body can most wisely exercise it. The
courts will determine the limits
within which the Federal authority
can exercise it, and there will still re-
main ample work within each State
for the railway commission of that
State; and the National Interstate
Commerce Commission will work in
harmony with the several State COM
missions, each within it's own prov
ince, to achieve the desired end.
Moreover, in my judgment there
should be additional legislation look
ing to the proper control Of the great
business concerns engaged in inter-
state business, this control to be eX-
ercised for their own benett and
prosperity no less than for the pro-
lection Of investors and of the gen.
eral public. AS I have repeatedly
said in Messages to the Congress and
elsewhere, experience has definitely
shown not merely the unWlsdom but
the futility of endeavoring to put
stop to all business combinations.
Modern industrial conditions are
such that combination is not only
necessary but inevitable. 1t Is so in
the world of business just az 1t is so
in the world Of labor, and it is as
idle to desire to put an end to all
corporations, to all big combinations
of capital, as to desire to put an end
to combinations of labor. Corpora
ton 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, 1T
should be promptly held to account;
but it should receive hearty encour-
agement so long as it is properly
managed. 1t is profoundly immoral
to put or keep on the statute books
law, nominally in the interest OF
public morality, that really puts a
premium upon public immortality by
undertaking to forbid honest men
from doing what must be done under
modern business conditions, so that
the law itself provides that its own
infraction must be the condition pre-
cedent upon business success.
Then the President, after making
pertinent excerpts from his Message
of last year, says:
The antitrust law should not be
repealed; but it should be made both
more efficient and more in harmony
with actual conditions. 1t should be
so amended as to forbid only the
kind of combination which does harm
to the general public, such amend
ment to be accompanied by, or to be
an incident of, a grant of supervisory
power to the Government over these
big concerns engaged in interstate
business. This should be accompan-
led by provision for the compulsory
publication Of accounts and the sub
lection of books and papers to the
inspection of the Government officials.
The antitrust law should not pro-
hibit combinations that do no tnJus-
tice to the public, still less those the
existence of which is on the whole OF
benefit to the public. But even II
this feature of the law were abol-
ished, there would remain as an
equally Objectionable feature the diff
iculty and delay now incident to its
enforcement. The Government must
now submit to irksome and repeated
delay before obtaining final decision
of the courts upon proceedings lnstl-
tuted, and even favorable decree
may mean an empty victory. More
over, to attempt to control these cor
porations by lawsuits means to i'm
pose upon both the Department of
Justice and the courts an impossible
burden; it is not feasible to carry
on more than limited number OF
such suits Such a law to be really
effective must Of course be admins
tered by an executive body, and not
merely by means Of lawsuits. The
design should be to prevent the
abuses incident to the creation OF
unhealthy and improper combina-
tions, instead of waiting until they
are in existence, and then attempting
to destroy them by civil or criminal
proceedings.
A combination should not be tol-
Grated if it abuse the power acquired
by combination to the public detri-
ment. No corporation or association
of any kind should be permitted to
engage in foreign or interstate COM
merce that is formed for the purpose
Of or whose operations create. a
monopoly or general control OF the
production, sale, or distribution of
any one or more Of the prime neces-
stiles Of life or articles of general use
and necessity Such combinations 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 channels Of
interstate commerce against them for
| it's protection. The law should make
it's prohibitions and permissions as
, clear and definite as possible, leav-
! ing the least possible room for arbi-