The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-28
RECEIVERS FOR THE TRUSTS.
Presidents Attempt to Go Farther
 Than Congress Intended.
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
 The president is impatient. His policy toward the corporations, if persisted in, will ultimately bring on a period of in- solvency and receiverships, but not soon
 enough to suit him, 1t appears. Accord ingly, the attorney general will petition the courts to appoint receivers of trusts and corporations carrying on business In violation of the federal statute forbidding the restraint of trade. The announcement of such an intention at the beginning of the federal warfare upon the corpora tions would have startled the country and led to @ paralysis of business. But the public has got used to being startled. It has been so Jaded and benumbed by re-
 peated shocks that its rehexes as the nerve doctors say, show an impaired sen- | sitiveness. Nevertheless the announce
 ment that receivers will be asked for as l a means of enforcing a criminal statute
 Is, when compared with suits to dissolve
 mergers or punish restraint of trade as l ton of dynamite to a cheap Chinese fire l cracker When once the attorney general l begins to get receivers appointed to take | the property and business of great corpor-
 ations out of the skilled hands that have ; built them up, and to administer their af-
 fairs or dissolve and destroy them, the
 security markets will doubtless show l pretty plainly what the investing public l thinks of the proceeding.
 l The Sherman antitrust law is a crlmi-
 nal statute. Its penalties are fine or im- | prisonment, or both. In the criminal law
 the word receiver" means a receiver of
 stolen goods. In equity the appointment
 of receiver Is asked Tor in the great ma | jority of cases to protect the rights of
 creditors and other parties in interest. l The equity powers of the courts are used | to be sure to prevent the doing of harm ! l junction. The antitrust law says nothing
 about receivers. Congress did not con l template @ resort to receiverships as 1 means of enforcing it's provisions. Every | contract, combination In the form of trust,
 or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of | trade or commerce among the several
 states, or with foreign nations, is hereby
 declared to be Illegal" so runs section 1
 of the act, and persons guilty of a misde-
 meanor, and upon conviction to be 1 punished by fine or by imprisonment, or | by both It is true that the several cir cult courts of the states are vested with l Jurisdiction ito prevent and restrain vio- lations of this act" and 1t is made the duty of federal district attorneys ito in stitute proceedings in equity to prevent and restrain such violations" What the remedy here contemplates Is the restrain
 ing order or prohibition which the court | may deem just in the premises. Congress | | have the power and would find a way to enforce their decree.
 Attorney General Bonaparte, and 1t may | be assumed that he has not acted with | out consulting the President. virtually | amends the act by adding the receivership 1 to the arsenal of weapons, such as fne l imprisonment, injunctions and court de- 1 crees, which the national legislature | thought to be adequate for its enforce | ment. The policy he announces has all l the charm of novelty, and We may add. ! all the terrors of abso1utlsm. That is, it I would be a terrifying and destructive | policy; a policy that would at once bring 1 on ruin and devastation if the courts had
 no discretion but to grant his petitions. l In the Sherman act Congress did not pro- l vide or intend that corporations should | be forbidden to do business, that cor 1 porate property should be taken out If | the hands of its owners; 1t intended only 1 to prevent restraint of trade, but to pre- | vent it by penalties which 1t prescribed. | The attorney general if his intentions arc 1 correctly set forth in Washington dis | patches, will ask that receivers be ap- | pointed to have absolute control of of. 1 lending corporations, and to continue or | discontinue their business at discretion. 1 The federal government through an officer | appointed by its courts, would therefore operate the business and manage the property of corporations owned by prl-
 vate individuals, and would have the DOW l CT to destroy the business altogether by dissolving the corporation and distributing | it's assets among the minor corporations l out of which 1t was formed. It requires very slight exercise of the imagination 10 | picture forth the consequences of such 1 federal policy toward great business in- l terests.
 Law officers of the government are said to be convinced that this proposed policy is legally sound. Upon the question the courts will be called upon to pass. con
 lecture as to what court will or VIII not do is proverbially unsafe, but 1t may at least he nresumel that the courts would advise the attorney general to get along
 with the law as Congress enacted it. that
 they will tell him that if the lawmakers
 had thought it necessary to provide Tor
 receivershps they would have said so Tn the act.