Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-08-21

l shall definitely make mp it's mind that | it will exercise over the great corpora tions that thoroughgoing and radical control which it is certain ultimately to find necessary The principle of the | sherman law so far as it prohibits com. binations which, whether because of | their extent or of their character, are harmful to the public, must always be preserved Ultimately, and l hope with reasonable speed, the national govern ment must pass laws which, while in creasing the supervisory and regulatory power of the government, also permits such useful combinations as are made with absolute openness and as the rep resentatives of the government may pre- viously approve. But it will not be pos sible to permit such combinations save as the second stage in the course of proceedings of which the first stage must be the exercise of q far more com plete control by the national govern ment.
 Criminal Prosecution
 In dealing with those who offend against the antitrust 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 criminally; and therefore it is advisable that there should be a clause in these laws providing for such criminal action, and for punishment by Imprisonment as well as by fine. But as is well known, in a criminal action the law is strictly construed in favor of the de fendaut and in our country, at least, both judge and jury are far more in clined to consider his rights than they are the interests of tho general public; while in addition it is always true that man s general practices may be so bad that a civil action will lie when 1t may not be possible to convict him of any one criminal act There is un- fortunately a certain number of our low-eountrymen 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 infamous the life he has led, no matter how pernieious his doet- rines or practices. This is the view an nouneed from time to time with clam orous insistence, now by a group of predatory capatilists, now by group of sinister anarehistic leaders and az itators, whenever special champion of either class, no matter how evil his general life, is acquitted of some one specific crime.
 Sticks to "Undesirables'
  piled to capitalist or labor leader. to rich man or poor man, and all that l We said as to desirable and undesirable citizens remains true.
 But we have to take this feeling into account when we are debating whether it is possible to get a conviction in criminal proceeding against some rich trust magnate, 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 conviction. As n matter of expedieney in enforcing the law against a great corporation, we have eOntin. ually to weigh the arguments pro and con as to whether prosecution can successfully be entered into, and as to whether we can be successful in a crim- inal action against the chief individuals in the corporation, and if not whether we can at least be successful in q civil action against the corporation itself. Any effective action on the part of the Government is always objected to, as matter of course, by the wrongdoers, by the benefciaries of the wrongdoers, and Nty Nk.. h.. g4 4 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 Ruses
 One of the favorite devices of those who are really striving to prevent the enforcement of these laws is to elamor for action of such severity that it can not be undertaken because it will be certain to fail if tried. An instance of this is the demand often made for criminal prosecutions where such pros cautions would be certain to fail. We have found by actual experience that a jury which will gladly punish cor. poration by fine, for instance, will ac- quit the individual members of that cor poration if we proceed against the crim- inally because of tfose very things which the corporation which they di- rect and control has done. In recent ease against the Licolice Trust we in- dicted and tried the two corporations and their respective presidents. The contracts and other transactions es- tablishing the guilt of the corporations were made through, and so far as they were in writing were signed by, the two presidents. Yet the jury convicted the two corporations and acquitted the two men. Both verdicts could not possibly have been correct; Hut apparently the average juryman wishes to see trusts broken up, and is quite ready to fine the corporation itself; but is very re- luctant to find the facts "proven be- yond reasonable doubt" whent comes to sending to jail a reputable member of the business community for doing what the business community has un- happily grown to recognize as we'll nigh normal in usiness. Moreover, under the necessary technicalities of criminal proceedings often the only man who can be reacl,ed criminally will be some subordinate who is not the real guilty party at all.
 After the Criminal Rich
 Many men of large wealth have been guilty of conduct which from the moral standpoint is criminal, and their mis- deeds are to peculiar degree repre- hensible, because those committing them have no excuse of want, of pov- erty, of weakness and ignorance to offer as a partial atonement. When in
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