The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-12-04

1ANAAIN/ANS IN w wv VI
the only quesuon Is as govern
mental body can most wisely exercise it.
The courts will determine the limits with
in which the Federal authority can ex-
ercise it, and there will still remain ample
work within each State for the railway
commission of that State; and the Ma
tional Interstate Commerce Commission
will work in harmony with the several
state commissions, each within its own
province. to achieve the desired end.
Control of Interstate
Business Concerns Urged.
Moreover, in my judgment there should
be ADDITIONAL legislation looking to the
proper control of the great business con-
Germs engaged in interstate business, this
control to be exercised for their own
benefit and prosperity no less than for
the protection of investors and of the
general public. AS / have repeatedly
said in messages to congress and else
where experience has definitely shown
not merely the unwisdom but the futility
of endeavoring to put stop to AL bust
ness combinations. Modern industrial
conditions are such that combination is
not only necessary but inevitable 1t is
so in the world of business just as it is
to desire to put an end to all corpora
tons. to all big combinations of capital,
as to desire to put an end to combina-
tons of labor. Corporation and labor
union alike have come to stay. Each IL
properly managed is a source of good
and not evil. Whenever in either there
is evil it should be promptly held to ac-
count; but it should receive hearty en-
enlargement so long as it is properly
managed. 1t is profoundly immoral to
put or keep on the statute books a law,
nominally in the interest of public moral
lty. that really puts a premium upon
pubic immortality, by undertaking to
forbid honest men from doing what must
be done under modern business condi-
tons, so that the law itself provides that
Its own infraction must be the condition
precedent upon business success. To aim
at the accomplishment of too much usu-
ally means the accomplishment of too lit
tie, and often the doing of positive dam
age. In my message to the congress a year
ago. in speaking of the antitrust laws,
/ said:
THE actual working of our laws has
shown that the effort to prohibit all COM
bination, good or bad. is noNious where
1t is not Ineffective. Combination of cap
ital, like combination of labor, is a neces-
sary element in our present Industrial
system. 1t is not possible completely to
prevent it; and if it We're possible such
complete prevention would do damage to
the body polite. What we need is not
vainly to try to prevent all combination,
but to secure such rigorous and ade-
quate control and supervision of the
combinations as to prevent their injuring
the public. or existing in such forms as
inevitably to threaten injury. - 1t
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 gem
eral public. Such combination, instead
of being forbidden by law, should be fa-
vored. 1t is a public evil to have
on the statute books a law incapable of
full enforcement, because both judges
and juries 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
will. and to put premium on the be-
haNior of the wllful wrongdoers. Such
result in turn tends to throw the decent
man and the willful wrongdoer into close
association, and in the end to drag down
the former to the atterS level: for the
man who becomes a lawbreaker in one
for law and to be willing to break it in
many ways. No more scathing con-
domination could be visited upon law
than is contained in the words of the in
terstate commerce commission when in
commenting upon the fact that the nu-
merous joint traffic associations do tech
nically violate the law they saw The
decision of the United States supreme
court in the Trans Missouri case and
the Joint Traffic association case has pro-
duced no practical effect upon the rail-
way operations of the country Such as
sociations. 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 tn.
kind afforded through these associations
This means that the law as con-
strued by the supreme court Is such that
the business of the country cannot be
conducted without breaking it,
Combinations Natural Result
Of Modern Conditions.
AS I have elsewhere said:
"All this is substantially what have
said over and over again. Surely it
ought not to be necessary to say that it
IN no shape or way represents any hos
tility to corporations as SUCH On the
contrary. 1T means a frank recognition of
the fact that combinations of capital like
combinations of labor. are a natural re-
suit of modern conditions and of our ma
tional development. AS far as in nv
ability lies my endeavor is and will be
to prevent abuse of power by either and
to favor both long as they do we'll.
The aim of the National Government is
quite as much to favor and protect hon
est corporations. honest business men Of
wealth, as to bring to justice those indi-
viduals and corporations representing dis
honest methods. Most certainly there
will he no relaxation by the government
authorities in the effort to get at any
great railroad wrecker-any man who by
clever swindlins devices robs investors.
Expresses wage-workers. and does injus-
tice to the general public. But any such
move as this is in the interest of hon
est railway operators. of honest corpora
tons, and of those who. when they in
vest their small savings in stocks and
bonds, wish to be assured that these will
represent money honestly expended for
legitimate business purposes. To confer
upon the National Government the power
for which ! ask would be check upon
overcapitalization and upon the clever