Arizona republican., 1907-12-04
ltablishment of the Bureau of Corpora

sfh Establishment of the Bureau of Corpora IIions.
 The antitrust law should not pro- lhibit combinations that do no injustice
 to the public, still less those the ex- listence of which is on the whole of
 benefit to the public. But even if this feature of the law were abolished, there you'd remain as an equally ob- Ijectionable feature the difficulty and delay now incident to it's enforcement. The Government must now submit to iTksomc and repeated delay before ob- taining final decision of the courts upon proceedings instituted. and even a favorable decree may mean an emp ty victory. Moreover. to attempt to control these corporations by lawsuits I means to impose upon both the De- tpartment of Justice and the courts an impossible burden: il is not feasible to lcarry on more than limited number tof such suits. Such law to be really effective must of course be admihis- ltered by an executive body, and not I merely by means of lawsuits. The de- sign should be to prevent the abuses incident to the creation of unhealthy and improper combinations. instead of waiting until they are in existence and then attempting to destroy them by civil or criminal proceedings.
 combination should not be tol- erated if it abuse the power. acquired by combination 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 foperations create.- a monopoly or gen. eral control of the production, sale, or distribution of any one or more of the prime necessities of life or articles of
 general use and necessity. Such com
 binations are against public policy; lthey violate the common law; the doors of the courts are closed to those | who are parties 10 them. and l believe the Congress can close the channels of interstate commerce against them for its protection. The law should make its prohibitions and permissions 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 di- lVergent interpretations by the courts. Among the points to be aimed at should be the prohibition of unhealthy z competition. such as by rendering serv-
 ice at an actual loss for the purpose of crushing out competition. the preVen- |, tion of imitation of capital. and the prohibition of corporations making exclusive trade with itself a condition
 or having any trade with itself. Rea-
 sonable agreements betwees>-or> com binations of. corporations should be permitted. provided they are first sub mitted to and approved by some ap-
 propriate Government body.
 Congressional Charters.
 "The Congress has the power to charter corporations 70 engage in in terstate and foreign commerce. and a
 general law can be enacted under the provisions of which existing corpora tions could take out Federal charters
 and new Federal corporations could be
 created. An essential provision of such law should be method of predeter- mining br some Federal board or com-
 mission whether the applicant for a
 Federal charter was an association or
 combination within the restrictions of
 the Federal law. Provision should al-
 so be made for complete publicity in all matters affecting the public and
 complete protection to the investing
 public and the shareholders in the mat ter of issuing corporate securities. If
 an incorporation law is not deemed ad-
 visable. a license act for big interstate corporations might be enacted: or a
 combination of the two might be tried. The supervision established might be
 analogous to that now exercised over
 national banks. At least the anti trust act should be supplemented by
 specific prohibitions of the methods
 which experience has shown have been .of most service in enabling monopolis-
 tic combinations to crush out compe- tition. The real owners of a corpora
 ton should be compelled to do business in their own name. The right to hold stock in other corporations should hereafter be denied to interstate cor
 porations. unless on approval by the proper Government officials. and a pre-
 requisite 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 corporation in which such stock is owned
 1 Wholesale Supervision.
 "To confer upon the National Gov ernment. in connection with the amendment advocate in the antitrust
 law, power of supervision over big business concerns engaged in inter state commerce, would benefit them as it has benefited the national banks. In. , the recent business crisis it IS note worthy that the institutions which | failed were institutions which were not under the supervision and control O. the National Government Those which were under National control stood the test.
 | National control O. the kind above advocated would be to the benefit of every well-managed railway. From the standpoint of the public there is reed for additional tracks. additional terminals. and Improvements in the tual handling Of the railroads. and all this as rapidly as possible. Ample, safe. and speedy transportation facili- ties are even more necessary than cheap transportation. Therefqe, there is need for the investment of money which will provide for all these things lwhile at the same time securing as far as is possible better wages and shorter hours for their employees. Therefore, while there must be just and reason- allp rpg1Ilatinn nf rat ,bn boI