The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-23
CONFERENCE
 ON TRUSTS National Civic Federation
 Meets. FOUR HUNDRED DELEGATES President Nicholas N. Butler Makes Notable Address. He Says rhe sherman Anti-Trust Law Is Too Extreme ana That
 rAe Act should Be
 Amended.

Chicago, Oct. s2-The trust" con- ference of the National Civic Fedora ton, which Is to continue for four days. opened here today. About 800 delegates were present representing forty-two States and approximately eighty different organizations Of mer- cantile, civil and municipal character.
 President Nicholas Murray Butler. or Columbia University. the president of the Federation. occupied the chair, ana -afssr calling the convention to order. delivered an address.
 Wade N. Ellis. Attorney General of Ohio. spoke on present principles anunciated by the organization of At- tornsys General"
 Attorney General Ellis said in part:
 1.-TWO important facts must be rec- ognixed and accepted before any pro- grass can be made In solving the prob lem of the trusts. The first of these Is that LSr1sst cooperation is needed to right the wrongs; and second. that honest cooperation Is not one of the wrongs to be lighted.
 Let us be done with all rivalry be- tween State and Federal Jurisdiction: let us indulge no timid fears about the pertuity of our dual form of gov ernment and revive no bugaboos Of q past generation to frighten the souls of the unwaxy. The trust question cannot be fenced up by State ltnes- whether will or no tt has become national cause and 1t will have to be decided in a national forum
 "The eaYort should be rather to seek one effectuaI remedy than to efnpha~ size conflict between many"
 He said that there is no inherent power in one corporation to own the stock of another. and that the states which deny such ownershfp of stock are powerlass to protect themselves. All the chief combinations now in ex- istence operate through stock owner Ship. congressscan and shoAla Aenx .to interstate comruercs corporatscna Ins power to own stock in other cofpofA. tiens. Congress having assumed and exercised the power to create anteF- state cofborations.
 Practical advantages he saids wouiu follow the denial to interstate corpor- ations of the right to own stock in in other corporations. There would pc nothing startling or revolutionary in the act if Congress should pass . sen. erai law on the subject t Wouiu simply be an adoption qf the common ilaw--rnerely an extension. of the policy Already enforced by Congress with re. tauect to all corporations now created under it's direct authority. He dlo no. predict that the policy suggested woalo solve the problem of the trusts, Dus he said it might remove the most on- vioug Of existing evils and more impor- tant than ali else, 1t would make tne ,e,.nvootern of every great enterprise conduct is openly under one name: Tne battle for husiness would then pc con s,,cfad without concealed weapons. and the natural growth of corporations resort to governmental restrictions which oppose sound economic laws.
 A. B. Akenny, of Minneapolis, spoke on Does the Power to Regulate Rates in Transportation of Commerce Rest with Congress or the Statee
 At the opening of the atternoon .,se sss. 2. sson. after the report of the committee ...s +.,,ias had been read and adopted, Tohn W. Tomlinson. of Birmingham Ala. spoke on Shall Federal Jurisdic. lion De Extended in the Solution Of the Trust Problem
 theodore Marsburg. of Baltimore, de- livered an address on fGovernmentai