The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-12-04


wholesome effective power of super
vision over their corporate use. In or
der to insure healthy social and in.
dustrial life. every big corporation
should be held responsible by and be
accountable to, some sovereign strong
enough to control its conduct. l am
in no sense hostile to corporations. This
is an age of combination, and any effort
to prevent all combination will be not
only useless, but in the end vicious, be-
cause of the contempt for law which
the failure to enforce law inevitably
produces. We should, moreover, recog
nize in cordial and ample fashion the i'm
mense good effected by corporate agen-
cies in country such as ours and the
wealth of intellect. energy and fidelity
devoted to their service, and therefore
normally to the service of the public, by
their officers and directors. The cor
porat1on has come to stay, just as the
trade union has come to stay. Each can
90 and has done great good. Each
should be favored SO long as it does good.
But each should be sharply checked
where 1t acts against law and justice.
The makers of our national
constitution provided especially that the
regulation of interstate commerce should
come within the sphere of the general
government The arguments in favor of
their taking this stand were even then
er to-day, in view of the enormous de-
velopment of great business agencies,
usually corporate in form. Experience
mas shown conclusively that it is useless
to try to get any adequate regulation
ana supervision of these great corpora
lions by state action. Such regulation
and supervision can only be effectively
exercised by sovereign whose jurisdic-
ton is coeNtensive with the field of work
OF the corporations-that is, by the ma
uonal government. 1 believe that this
regulation and supervision can be OBJ
tanned by the enactment of law by the
congress. Our steady, aim should
be by legislation, cautiously and care
fully undertaken, but resolutely perse-
vered in. to assert the sovereignty of the
national government by affirmative ac-
ton.
This is only in form an innovation
In substance 1T is merely restoration;
for from the earliest time such regulation
OF industrial activities has been recog-
nized in the action of the lawmaking
bodies: and all that propose is to meet
the changed conditions in such manner
us VIII prevent the commonwealth abdi-
eating the power it has always possessed.
not only in this country, but also in Eng
land before and since this country be-
came separate nation
1T has been misfortune that the ma
honal laws on this subject have hitherto
been of a negative or prohibitive rather
IMAM an affirmative kind, and still more
that they have in part sought to pro-
hibit what could not be effectually pro-
hblted, and have in part in their pro-
hibitions confounded what should be
allowed and what should not be allowed
1t is generally useless to try to prohibit
all restraint on competition, whether this
restraint be reasonable or unreasonable;
and where it is not useless it is gener-
ally hurtful. The successful pros
ecution of one device to evade the law
Immediately develops another device to
accomplish the same purpose What is
needed is not sweeping prohibition of
every arrangement, good or bad. which
may tend to restrict competition, but
such adequate supervision and regula-
ton as will prevent any restric lion Of
competition from being to the detriment
of the public, as we'll as such supervision
and regulation as will prevent other
abuses in no way connected with restric-
ton of competition"
have called your attention in these
quotations to what I have already said
because am satisfied that it is the duty
OF the national government to embody
In action the principles thus expressed.
Federal Control or
Railroads Is Favored.
No small part of the trouble that we
nave comes from carrying to an extreme
the national virtue of self-reliance, of in
dependence in initiative and action. 1t is
wise to conserve this virtue and to pro-
vide for its fullest exercise, compatible
with seeing that liberty does not become
liberty to wrong others. Unfortunately,
this is the kind of liberty that the lack of
all effective regulation inevitably breeds
The founders of the Constitution pro-
vided that the National Government
should have complete and sole control of
interstate commerce. There was then
practically no interstate business save
such as was conducted by water and
this the National Government at once
proceeded to regulate in thoroughgoing
and effective fashion. Conditions have now
SO wholly changed that the interstate
commerce by water is insignificant COM
pared with the amount that goes by land,
and almost all big business concerns are
now engaged in interstate commerce. AS
result. it can be but partially and i'm
perfectly controlled regulated by the
action of any one of the several states
such action inevitably tending to be
either too drastic or else too lax and in
either case ineffective for purposes of
justice. Only the National Government
can in thoroughgoing fashion exercise the
needed control. This does not mean that
there should be any extension of Federal
authority, for such authority already ex-
lists under the Constitution in amplest
and most far-reaching form: but it does
mean that there should be an extension
of Federal activity. This is not advo-
eating Capitalization. 1t is merely look
ing facts in the face. and realizing that
Capitalization in business has already
come and can not be avoided or undone,
and that the public at large can only
protect itself from certain evil effects
of this business Capitalization by provid-
ing better methods for the exercise of
control through the authority already
centralized in the National Government
by the Constitution itself. There must be
no halt in the healthy constructive course
of action which this Nation has elected to
pursue, and has steadily pursued, during
the last six years, as shown both in the
legislation of the Congress and the adj
ministration of the law by the Depart
ment of Justice. The most vital need is
in connection with the railroads. AS to
these, in my judgment there should now
be either national Incorporation act or
a law licensing railway companies to en-
gage in interstate commerce upon certain
conditions. The law should be so framed
as to give to the Interstate Commerce
Commission power to pass upon the flu
ture issue of securities. while ample
means should be provided to enable the