Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1907-08-20

~''N 'Neei o'upNo VA llSi Vic WI pOi
ton is or may be guilty; while in 9TH
er cases the effort Is apt to cause eth
er hardship to the corporation itself,
or else hardship to neighboring states
which have not tried to grapple with
the problem in the same manner; and
OF course We must be as scrupulous to
safeguard the rights of the corpora
tions as to exact from them In return
a full measure of justice to the public
| believe in national incorporation
law for corporations engaged in inter-
state business. believe, furthermore,
that the need for action is most press
ing as regards those corporations
which, because they are common car
riers, exercise quasi.public function;
and which can be completely controll-
ed, in all respects by the Federal gov
ernment, by the exercise of the power
conferred under the interstate COM
merce clause, and, if necessary, under
the postroad clause, of the Constitu-
tion. During the last few years we
have taken marked strides in advance
along the road Of proper regulation of
these railroad corporations; but we
must not stop in the work The ma
tional government should exercise
over them similar supervision and
control to that which it exercises over
national banks. We can do this only
by proceeding farther along the lines
marked out by the recent national leg,
islation.
What the Sherman Law Has Accom-.
plished.
"In dealing with any totally new set
of conditions there must at the outset
be hesitation and experiment. Such
has been our experience In dealing
with the enormous concentration of
capital employed in interstate bust
ness. Not only the legislatures but
the courts and the people need gradu-
ally to be educated so that they may
see what the real wrongs are and
what the real remedies. Almost every
big business concern is engaged in
interstate commerce, and such con-
Germ must not be allowed by a dex-
ferrous shifting Of position, as has
been too often the case in the past, to
escape thereby all responsibility
either to state or to nation. The
American people became firmly con-
vinced of the need Of control over
these great aggregations of capital, es-
pecially where they had a monopo-
listic tendency, before they became
quite clear as to the proper way Of
achieving the control. Through their
representatives in Congress they tried
two remedies, which were to large
degree, at least as interpreted by the
courts, contradictory. On the one
one hand, under the anti trust law the
effort was made to prohibit all COM
binatiOn, whether it was or was not
hurtful or beneficial to the public. On
the other hand, through the Interstate
Commerce Law beginning was made
in exercising such supervision and
control over combinations as to pre-
vent their doing anything harmful to
the body polite. The first law, the So
called Sherman law, has filled USE
full place, for it bridges over the tran.
sition period until the American peo-
pie shall definitely make up its mind
that it will exercise over the great
corporations that thorough-going and
radical control which it is certain ul-
timately to find necessary. The prin-
ciple of the Sherman law so far as 1t
prohibits combinations which, wheth-
er because of their extent or of their
character, are harmful to the public
must always be preserved. Ultimate
ly, and hope with reasonable speed,
the national government must pass
laws which, while increasing the SUI
pervisory and regulatory power of the
government, also permits such useful
4 combinations as are made with abso-
Lutte openness and as the representa-
tives of the government may previous
ly approve. But it will not be possible
to permit such combinations save as
the second stage in a course Of pro
ceedings of which the first stage must
be the exercise of far more complete
control by the national government.
| Il very earnestly hope that the leg
islation which deals with the regula-
tion Of corporations engaged In inter-
state business will also deal with the
rights and interests of the wagework-