New-York tribune., 1907-10-25
DISCUSSION OF TRUSTS.
BIZ CIVIC FEDERATION.
Many Ideas 4dU0nced at Meeting
IN Chicago.


chicago. Oct. 24.--Herbert Knox Smith of the
federal bureau of corporations was the first
speaker at to-day's session of the National Civic
federation trust conference. speaking on Admin
Etrative Regulation Of Corporations'' He sug-
gested system OF regulation by supervision OF
corporations through the medium Of a specialized
administrative office organized for the purpose
Large corporations doing certain gross amount
of business would be required. If the plan he sug-
Ees:ed should be adopted to make reports, subject
their accounts to inspection and all facts of pub
lc interest would be published from time to time.
On the subject Of dealing with trusts Mr.. Smith
said:
% either pr0hi6it or regulate combinations To my
administrative Office exercising supervision over
corporate operations accompanied by wide pub
lefty ana backed up by criminal penalties directed
81 unfair @ methods Of competition: by prohibition
The. antitrust laws are. wholly unsuited to ac-
eolnplish any such results. They negative
whether beneficial or harmful. They are enforced
only by courts They also forbid necessarily any
cooperation between the government and corporate
interests. because the antitrust laws are attack
selves.
D. A Tonpkins, OF Charlotte. y. c.. spoke on
The Railways and the People" urging that in
tNrstate commerce, which. he said. had grown en-
tirely beyond the control Of any one state, be
brought under one general control and TO a
dition OF Uniform treatment throughout the United
States
William Jay schiefeIin. Of New York, speaking
Reasonable Agreements Beneficial 10 Com
inerce," told of the formation by the wholesale
druggists OF the country of their association made
necessary by excessive competition in proprietary
medicines. IN part he said.
J-ntn the government suit was brought against
The drug interests it had always been supposed
hat the Sherman antitrust law was intended for
The protection Of the many against the few 1t
vas used RoweE9r t TO ProdTSe sTaGTy cs the OPS
such a broad one that the injunction in the gov
crnment suit completely tied the hands of the two
tail branches of the drug trade and prevented either
tain protection from the manufacturers whose
GOODS they handle IT can hardly r be soneeye acb
great hardship upon thousands of good citizens en-
saged in the same line of business.
sonabIe agreements which are beneficial TO com
Inerce and which do not conflict with the public
welfare in any way the business men Of this copn-
advantage II this law should be literally applied
it will cause the greatest possible restraint OF
condition. Reasonable agreements do not restrain
There is pressing need Of Congressional legis-
lation which viii make it lawful to enter into rea-
such agreements it is difficult meet the complex
conditions Of modern business. l therefore urge
this convention to petition Congress 10 amend the
sherman law so as to make its provisions apply
unreasonable restraint or trade.
Herman Ridder, Of New York president OF the
American Newspaper Publishers Association, dis
cussed the relation Of the newspapers TO the paper
trust and the labor trust saying in part;
We find that the adOpton Of arbitration for the
the stability of Investment in newspaper property.
ontenti95s Ion Wish formeT caused tnfinte trouble
often leading to destruction OF property, enormous
losses OF and the engendering Of passion. The
payments they made for the maintenance OF this
arbitration ARRANGEMENT and for the carrying out
publishers as payments for industrial Insurance.
It f5 has as ba ey ycanaed d iod @ [ o in New c4 aon
the newspapers pay $4,000 per annum as their
-Tre -9ag afZal1 1lfsa
The unions have fallen into the habit Of expect
ing more from a new spaper than any union could
unions making demands upon the newspapers
because of supposed helpessness of employers in
resisting such exactions: A newspaper 10 exist
must run all the time It cannot wait TO contest
strikes or to resist demands
Serious this labor trust may appear in some OF
features with paper e9nlbination which which Is prop.
tiles. The NEWSPAPERS insist that the paper manu-
facturers who induced Congress to protect them
against competition from abroad are, under obl-
demands Of consumers @ in in this Country TO repTess
nsTr aEeY Is IN 10 position to create famine and
20 stop the supply TO any publisher. should rank
obtain any quotations for paper next year. and
do not know whore to obtain supply IN all the
and trusts, such situation Is unprecedented. 1t
demands immediate remedy
The first speaker at the afternoon session was
Professor F. ". Taussig Of Harvard University
toward corporations. He said prohibition. pen
alizing dissolution and trust busting hopeless
q means OF dealing with the trust problem.
The present drastic measures" he said, must
he regarded as opening the way not to the restora
for Of competition the final destruction OF com
b:natons but TO the cooperation of the combina-
tons with the public" These policies sug-
Eested by Professor Taussig: Federal incorporation
snd federal regulation; careful not slap-dash. leg
isiaton; careful administration and continuity In
administration and the dvorcing from politics OF
the Bureau OF Corporations and the Interstate
Commerce Commission; time to work out the
ilex problems, and, finally, realization by the
public that money making is not necessarily bad
Thomas c Spelling, of New York. representing
'hs American Federation Of Labor said he believed
the only hope OF solution OF the question lies
in amendment 10 the federal Constitution. He
Faid the only kind Of business TO which the anti
trust found TO be clearly applicable was in
fersate transportation. and that act has been prac-
toally nuhe0 in its applicability to interstate rail-
roads by the Hepburn rate act, construed by the
Interstate Commerce Commission"
Professor George H Gore, OF George Washington
University, delivered address upon "The Rela-
f!ons of Industrial Combinations 10 Export Trade"
A paper on The Adjustment OF Labor Problems
ana the Policy OF Incorporating Unions" prepared
by D. c. Seitz of New York. was read, Mr.. Seitz
being unable TO be present tn paper advocated
TIE incorporation of labor unions, that they
shall be upon the plane BEFORE the law as are
combinations of capital
Charles q. Dawes, eX-Controler OF the Currency,
spoke last night in part, as follows
! cannot say that II is intentional the part
Ot the Department Of Justice, but OF its
tons look remarkably as If favoritism was being