Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-08-20

1t exercises over national banks. We
can do this only by proceeding farther
along the lines marked out by the re-
cent national legislation.
Corporations Must Not Escape.
hi dealing with any totally new set
of conditions there must at the out
set be hesitation and experiment. Such
has been our experience in dealing
/ with the enormous concentration OF
capital employed in interstate business.
Not only the legislatures but the courts
| and the people need gradually to be
educated so that they may see what
the real wrongs are and what the real
remedies. Almost every big business
f! concern is engaged in interstate COM
merce and such a concern must not
| be allowed by a dexterous shifting of
/ position, as has been too often the
I case in the past. to escape thereby all
responsibility either to state or to ma
ton. The American people became
! firmly convinced of the need of control
over these great aggregations of cap
ital. especially where they had a
| monopolistic tendency, before they be-
came quite clear as to the proper way
| of achieving the control. Thru their
| repi esentatives in congress they tried
| two remedies, which were to large
degree. at least as interpreted by the
courts, contradictory. On the one
| hand, under the anti trust law the
effort was made to prohibit all comb
nation, whether 1t was or was not
| hurtful or beneficial to the public.
On the other hand. thru the interstate
commerce law beginning was made
| in exercising such supervision and
control over combinations as to pre-
vent their doing anything harmful to
| the body polite The first law the
| o-called Sherman law. has filled a
useful place for it bridges over the
transition period until the American
people shall definitely make up its
| mind that it will exercise over the
great corporations that thorough going
and radical control which it is certain
ultimately to find necessary. The prin-
ciple Of the Sherman law so far as
it prohibits combinations which,
whether because OF their extent or Of
their character. are harmful to the
public must always be preserved. Ul-
timately, and 1 hope with reasonable
speed the national government must
pass laws which, while increasing the
supervisory and regulatory power Of
the government. also permits such use
full combinations as are made with abb
solute openness and as the representa-
tives of the government may prev
iously approve. But it will not be
possible to permit such combinations
save as the second stage in a course
OF proceedings of which the first stage
=
complete control by the national. gov
ernment
Favors Criminal Clause.
In dealing with those who offend
against the anti-trust and interstate
commerce laws the department of jus
tice has to encounter many and great
difficulties. Often men who have been
guilty Of violating these laws have
really acted in criminal fashion, and if
possible should be proceeded against
cri1ninally; and therefore it is adj
visable that there should be clause
In these laws providing for such GRIM
inal action. and for punishment by
Imprisonment as we'll as by fine. But.
as is well known, in a criminal action
the law is strictly construed in favor
of the defendant. and in our country,
at least, both judge and jury are far
more inclined to consider his rights
than they are the interests of the gen.
eral public; while in addition it Is
always true that a mans general prac-
tices may be so bad that a civil action
will lie when it may not be possible
to convict him of any one criminal
act. There is unfortunately a certain
number of our fellow countrymen who
seem to accept the view that unless a
man can be proved guilty of some
particular crime he shall be counted
a good citizen, no matter how tnfa-
mous the life he haso led; no matter
how pernicious his doctrines or his
practices This is the view announced
from time to time with clamorous
insistence, now by group of predatory
capitalists. now by a group of sinister
anarchistic leaders and lagitators.
whenever special champion of either
class. no matter how evil his general
life, Is acquitted of some one specific
crime. Such view is wicked wheth-
er applied to capitalist or labor leader,
to rich man or poor man. But we
have to take this feeling into account
when we are debating whether it is
possible to get conviction in Grim
inal proceeding against some rich trust
ma gnate, many of whose actions are
severely to be condemned from the |
moral and social standpoint. but no
one of whose actions seems clearly to
establish such technical guilt as will
ensure a conviction. AS a matter of ex-
pediency in enforcing the law
against a great corporation. we have
continually to weigh the arguments
pro and con as to whether a prosecu-
ton can successfully be entered into,
and as to whether we can be successful
In criminal action against the chief IN
dividuals in the corporation, and if not !
we can at least be successful |
in civil action against the corpora
ton itself. Any effective action on the |
part of the government is always OBJ
jected to, as a matter of course, by the
wrongdoers. by the beneficiaries of the
wrongdoers, and by their champions:
and often one of the most effective
ways of attacking the action Of the
government is by objecting to practical
action upon the ground that it does
not go far enough. One of the favor
ite devices of those who are really |;
striving to prevent the enforcement of
these laws is to clamor for action of
such severity that it can not be un-
fail if tried An instance Of this is the
demand often made for criminal pros
ecutions where such prosecutions