The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-12-06

roads. AS to these, in my judgment
there should now be either national
| Incorporation act or law licensing
railway companies to engage in inter-
state commerce upon certain condi-
tions. The law should be so framed
as to give to the Interstate Com
MERGE Commission power to pass
upon the future issue of securities,
while ample means should be pro-
vided to enable the Commission,
| whenever In its judgment it is neces-
sary, to make a physical valuation of
any railroad AS stated in my Mes
sage to the Congress year ago, rail-
roads should be given power to enter
into agreements, subject to these
agreements being made public in mi
mute detail and to the consent of the
Interstate Commerce Commission be-
ing first obtained. Until the Nation
al Government assumes proper con-
troll of interstate commerce, in the
exercise of the authority it already
possesses; it will be impossible
either to give to or to get from
the railroads full justice. The
railroads and all other great corpor-
ations will do we'll to recognize that
this control must come; the only
question Is as to what governmental
body can most wisely exercise 1t. The
courts will determine the limits
within which the Federal authority
can exercise it, and there will still re-
main ample work within each State
for the railway commission of that
State; and the National Interstate
Commerce Commission will work in
harmony with the several State COM
missions, each within it's own prov
ince, to achieve the desired end.
Moreover, in my judgment there
should be additional legislation look
ing to the proper control of the great
business concerns engaged in inter-
state business, this control to be ex-
ercised for their own benefit and
prosperity no less than for the pro-
lection of investors and of the gen.
eral public AS / have repeatedly
said in Messages to the Congress and
elsewhere, experience has definitely
shown not merely the unwisdom but
the futility of endeavoring to put a
stop to all business combinations.
Modern Industrial conditions are
such that com bination is not only
necessary but Inevitable. 1t is so in
the world of business just as it Is SO
in the world of labor, and it is as
idle to desire to put an end to all
corporations, to all big combinations
of capital, as to desire to put an end
to combinations of labor. Corpora
ton and labor union alike have come
to stay. Each If properly managed
is a source of good and not evil.
Whenever in either there is evil, it
should be promptly held to account;
but it should receive hearty encour-
agement so long as it is properly
managed. 1t is profoundly immoral
to put or keep on the statute books
a law, nominally in the interest OF
public morality, that really puts a
premium upon public immortality by
undertaking to forbid honest men
from doing what must be done under
modern business conditions, so that
the law itself provides that its own
infraction must be the condition pre-
cedent upon business success.
Then the President, after making
pertinent excerpts from his Message
of last year, says:
The antitrust law should not be
repealed; but it should be made both
more efficient and more in harmony
with actual conditions. 1t should be
SO amended as to forbid only the
kind of combination which does harm
to the general public, such amend
| ment to be accompanied by, or to be
an incident of, grant of supervisory
power to the Government over these
big concerns engaged in interstate
business. This should be accompan-
led by provision for the compulsory
publication of accounts and the sub
lection of books and papers to the
inspection of the Government ofdciaIs.
The antitrust law should not pro-
hibit combinations that do no injus-
tice to the public, still less those the
existence of which is on the whole of
! benefit to the public. But even if
/ this feature of the law were abol-
! ished, there would remain as an
equally Objectionable feature the diff
| flculty and delay now incident to its
enforcement. The Government must
now submit to irksome and repeated
delay before obtaining final decision
of the courts upon proceedings insti-
| tuted, and even favorable decree
may mean an empty victory. More
over, to attempt to control these cor
porations by lawsuits means to i'm
pose upon both the Department of
| Justice and the courts an impossible
| burden, it is not feasible to carry
| on more than limited number of
such suits. Such law to be really
effective must of course be admins
tered by an executive body, and not
merely by means of lawsuits. The
design should be to prevent the
abuses incident to the creation of
unhealthy and improper combina-
tions, instead Of waiting until they
are in existence, and then attempting
I to destroy them by civil or criminal
! proceedings.
A combination should not be toll
Grated if it abuse the power acquired
/ by combination to the public detri-
ment. No corporation or association
of any kind should be permitted to
engage in foreign interstate COM
merce that is formed for the purpose
! of, or whose operations create, a
monopoly or general control of the
production, sale, or distribution of