The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-10-22
Four Hundred Delegates As
semble in Chicago
For Trust Conference Called by
Civic Federation.
HI p SITUATION
Discussed by President News
paper Publishers Association.
Denounces Paper Trust as
Unprecedented Criminal.

Chicago, Oct. 22.-The trust con-
ference of the National Civic feoera-
ton which is to continue for four Gays
onened here today. About 400 dele
100 we're present representing forty
two states, and approximately el0hty
different organizations of a mercan-
tile. civic and municipal character.
President Nicholas Murray Butter
called the convention to order. .
Wade H. Ellis, attorney genera or
Ohio, spoke On 1.-The States and the
Trusts"
A. F. Ankeny of Minneapolis spoke
on the question of whether the power
to regulate transportation rates rests
with congress or with the states.
r. H. Davidson, attorney general OF
Texas, spoke on 1.-THE New Organiza>
ton of Attorneys General" and Avery
G.. Moore of Idaho delivered a comprc..
hensive address upon THE Division or
Power Between Nation and State
That the Sherman antitrust law
commits the nation to a policy which
is too extreme and that the time may
have come when the act should be
amended in a way to relieve some of
the limitations upon business activity
which the act imposes was suggested
by President Nicholas Murray Butler
of Columb university in an address
welcoming the delegates to the con.
vention, He said that the purpose or
such an amendment would not be 50
much to relieve the corporations as
the people themselves. He suggested
that it might thus be possible for the
people to secure for themselves the
benefits which come from
tive activity, as manifested in corpor-
ations and by agreements
corporations, without in any way les
SEEMING the protection which all De
sire against the evils which have FOL
lowed upon the creation OF great cor
porations and upon agreements pc
tween them in restraint OF trdue. ne
aid in part:
"On behalf of the National Civic Fed
Grafton. it is my agreeable duty to ex-
tend a cordial greeting to the
who have semb to constitute TINS
conference. We have before US a rare
opportunity for the free and fair inter-
change of views, and for the CONSIDER
ate discussion of some OF the questlonS
that are now, and for some time past
have been, uppermost in the public
mind. 1t is by bodies such as this, rep
resenting the voluntary assembling Of
hundreds of interested citizens, that
public opinion itself is ormef
1--WE are here to try to shed light
upon some of the most difficult econ
omic and political problems OF our
time. We do not expect to solve them,
but it is not too much to hope that
their solution. One of the most bene-
fcent results of the development OF
the Nineteenth century was the rapid
growth of the corporation as an in
strument for carrying on industry and
ommerc
Experience has shown us, however.
that we nave not been entirely sue
cessful as yet in adjusting our public
administration and our legal theory to
the situation which the multiplication
and growth of corporations has
brought about. Not only mas there
been. in far too many cases, a sinister
@11ia-on hntv-nnn fhnSa who have
sought governmental privileges for the
corporations which they serve n
those who as governmental officers
were in position to influence the
porations themselves, although the
creatures of the state, have seemed to
be in some way beyond the power of
the state to control and outside the
reach of its authority"
Herman Riders Address.
Herman Ridder, president Of the
American Newspaper Publishers as
ISOLATION, said in part:
Government reports upon the con-
dition of the printing and publishing
business, as it was two years ago, show
that it was the only large manufacture
ing industry which tended toward diff
fusion and away from consolidation
or concentration. In the previous i've
years it had grown in greater proper
ton that any other industry, and it
had taken first place among all the in
dustries of the country in the number
of establishments.
Furthermore, the number of print
ing establishments had shown a
greater increase in the five years from
1900 to 1905 than in the previous ten
years. Then, too, the per capita value
of printing and publishing products
a increased in greater proportion
than those of any other industry. In
fact, only three other industries had
shown an absolute increase in pro-
ducts greater than that of the print
ing and publishing business. These
facts become important and signi1-
cant in any discussion dealing with
the effects of combinations or trusts
upon Industrial progress.
Since these reports were compiled,
the printing and publishing interest
has been menaced and beSet at every
point by oppressive combinations. The
cost of every article that it uses, in
GLIDING labor, has been subjected to
an artificial stimulation, and it IS
doubtful If the splendid contrast that
was then made by that unprotected in
dustry with the coddled favorities of
the tariff or with the trusteed indus
tries, can now be- maintained.
The printing and publishing inter-
ests then represented an annual nrod-
uct OF one-half billion dollars. of which
six cities contributed a quarter billion
and New York city alone contributed
almost one-Quarter of the great total.