The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-25

| by and under the dominion of the States and engaged in interstate com
 merce. That failure has led to we'll krown abuses which affect interstate
 commerce. and thereby created the
 necessity for the exercise of federal
 regulation to prevent the abuse.
 The necessity for the exercise of fed-
 eral regulation almost always springs from causes the States could have pre-
 vented
 The national power of regulation should only be invoked when necessi- ty for regulation exists Normally and honestly conducted commerce requires but little if any governmental rcgula- tion, and the failure by congress to regulate interstate commerce is equiva- lent to a legislative declaration that it shall be free. Abnormal conditions in 1 commercial intercourse caused by mo-
 noEolies, preferential service, rebates and the like, destroy the normal oper- ations of commerce and create the de- 1 mand for federal regulation to restore the rule of freedom and equality The pressure of the accumulated evils and abuses of many years of made quately regulated commerce in this country eliminated some few years ago in an imperative necessity for ac- ton to test the adequacy of existing laws to meet the situation, and the en- actment of such additional ones as should prove to be necessary to re- store and preserve freedom and eQuali-
 ty in interstate and foreign commerce. | The combinations to control the pro-
 dLction, distribution and sale of com
 moditics which were to be subjects of Interstate commerce; the combinations | between and the mergers of interstate railroads, designed to bring under one control the transportation business of
 large areas of the country; the unjust dlscriminations to favored shippers and localities, both in the carrying service
 and the rates charged therefor; the se- cIecy surrounding the operations of corporations rendering service to the
 public had utterly destroyed in many localities the ability of other persons and concerns 10 engage in commercial competition with the favored ones who enjoyed such unfair and illegal advan- teges.
 A brief statement of how this situa- ton was dealt with by the national government, the theory upon which the government proceeded. and some ob- servations upon certain mischlevous
 misconceptions as to the scope of the pc wers that have been successfully in- voEed to correct the evils have nam ed, will not, hope, be uninteresting nor uninstructive.
 First, the scope of existing laws was tested through series of suits. These suits had for their main purpose to de- termine the effectiveness of existing statutes to reach new types of comblna- tior. to restrain the free-play of the law of competition, and new and subtle discriminatory devices which had sprung from fertile and experienced minds instructed in the interpretations the courts had put upon the existing laws.
 The purposes for which this litigation was undertaken were all accomplished. The completeness of the federal power over commerce was reaffirmed and de- clared to extend among other things to the holding company.
 This device which had been success fully employed to establish under one control the leading productive indus tries of the country was declared H. legal when utilized to absorb competing systems of interstate railroads, and thereby we escaped danger to our commerce, our government and our very liberties, the magnitude of which can scarcely be grasped
 It was likewise judlcially determined, that a combination between a railroad company and a shipper, to grant the latter an unlawful rebate which results in the establishing of a monopoly, Is violation of the sherman act, and that court of equity might restrain the guilty parties at the, suit of the attorney-general of the United States, as we'll under that act, as under the general Jurisdiction in equity. Of almost equal importance was the decision that the operations of a monopohstic com Dir ation within a State may be so con- nected with those between the States as to bring the whole under the regu- lative power of congress.
 Notwithstanding the success which attended these suits, there was devel- oped number of serious defects and omissions in national legislation neces- sary to be corrected, if the avenues of commerce were to be kept open to all uron the same terms, and if a speedy and workable remedy for violations of the law was to be placed in the hands oe the government itself to restore the rule of freedom and equality in inter- state and foreign commerce.
 The legislation proposed to the Fifty seventh Congress as necessary to &C., cC Cmphsh the restoration of the normal commercial rule, all of which was promptly enacted, was:
 1st. That in respect of railroad re- bates, the omission in the act to regu- late commerce to punish the beneficiary should be supplied by imposing pen atty, not only upon the carrier who gave, but upon the shipper who re- ceived, such rebates. and that the pow CT of the equity courts to restrain such practices at the suit of the United States should be made certain by stat ute
 2d. That it should be made unlaw- ful 10 transport traffic by carriers sub- feet to the act to regulate commerce at any rate less than such carriers pub Hshed rate, and that all who partlci- roted in the violation of such law