The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1907-12-04

put an end TO all corporations, to ALL
big combinations of capital, as to de-
sire to put an end to combinations of
labor. Corporation and labor union
alike. have come 10 stay Each, if
properly managed. is a source of good
and not evil. Whenever in either there
is evil. 1t should be promptly held to
account; but 1t should receive hearty
encoura cement so long as it is prop
erly managed It is profoundly i'm
moral to put or keep on the statute
books law. nominally in the interest
of public morality, that really puts
a premium upon public immortality, by
undertaking to forbid honest men from
doing what must be done under modern
business conditions, so that the law
itself provides that its own infraction
must be the condition precedent upon
business success. To aim at the accom-
plishment of too much usually means
the accomplishment of too little, and
often the doing of positive damage.
In my message to the congress year
ago, in speaking of the antitrust laws
1 said:
Combinations Needed
THE actual working of our laws has
shown that the effort to prohibit all
combination, good or bad, is noxious
where it is not ineffective Combina-
labor, is a necessary element in our
present industrial system 1t is not
possible completely to prevent it; and
If it We're pcssibfes-such complete pre-
vention would do damage to the body
polite. What we need is not valnly
to try to prevent all combination, but
to secure such rigorous and adequate
control and supervision OF the com
binations as to prevent their tnjuring
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 evil.
Often railroads would like TO
a big shipper from maintaining i'm
proper advantages at the expense OF
small shippers and of the general pup
lie. Such q combination instead OF being
forbidden by law, should be favored.
1t is public evil TO nave
on the statute books law incapable
of full enforcement, because botn
judges and juries realize that its full
enforcement would destroy the business
of the country: for the result is TO
make decent men vtolatorS of the law
MUM on the behavior of the willful
wrongdoers. Such a result in turn
tends to throw the decent man and
the willful wrongdoer into close asso-
down the former to the latter's
level; for the man who becomes
law breaker in one way unhappily
tends to lose ali respect for law and to
be willing to break 1T in many ways
No more scathing condemnation could
be visited upon law than is contained
in the words of the interstate commerce
commission when, in commenting upon
the fact that the numerous joint traffic
associations do technically violate the
law they say: The decision of the
United States supreme court in the
trans Missouri case and the joint traffic
association case has produced no prac-
tical effect upon the railway operations
of the country. Such associations, in
fact exist now as did exist before
these decisions, and with the same gen
eral effect. In justice to all parties we
ought probably to add that 1t is difficult
to see how our interstate railways could
be operated with due>regard to the In
terest of the shipper and the railway
without concerted action OF the 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 can
not be conducted Without breaking it,"
As have elsewhere said:
Proper Publicity
"All this is substantially what I have
said over and over again. Surely it
oneht not to be necessary to say that
it in no shape or way represents any
hostility to corporations rs such On
the contrary, 1T means frank recogn1-
tion of the fact that combinations OF
capital like combinations of labor, are
a natural result of modern conditions
and OF our national development. AS
is and Will be to prevent abuse of pow
er by either and to favor both as long
as they do well. The aim OF the ma
tional government is quite as much to
favor and protect honest corporations,
honest businessmen of wealth, as to
bring to justice those individuals and
corporations representing dishonest
methods Most certainly there will be
no relaxation by the government au-
thorities in the effort to get at any
great railroad wrecker-any man who
by clever swindling devices robs in
vestors, oppresses wage workers and
does Injustice to the general public
But any such move as this is in the in
terest of honest railway operators of
honest corporations and of those who
when they invest theirN small savings
in stocks and bonds wish to be assured
that these will represent money hon
estly expended for legitimate business
government the power for which 1 ask
would be a check upon overcapttaliza-
tion and upon the clever gamblers who
benefit by overcapitalization. But 1t
alone would mean an increase in the
value. an increase in the safety. Of the
stocks and bonds of law abiding, hon
estly managed railroads, and would rem
der 1t far easier to market their securi-
ties / believe in proper publicity.
There has been complaint of some Of
the Investigations recently carried on.
but those who complain should put
the the misdeeds which are done piil in
darkness and not upon the fnvestiga-
tions which brought them to light. The
administration Is responsible for turn
| sible for what the light showed.
ask for full powe- to be given the
/ federal government. because no single
| with these powerful corporations en-
gagged In Interstate commerce, and.
| while doing them fllll justice. exact
from them in return full justice to