The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-04-28

the congress to utilize and exercise the
great powers conferred upon it as re-
CARDS interstate commerce leaves this
commerce to be regulated not by the
state nor yet by the congress, but by
the occasional and necessarily made
quate and one sided action of the fed
eral judiciary. However upright and
able a court is it cannot act construc-
lively. 1t can only act negatively or
destructively as an agency of govern
ment. And this means that the courts
are and must always be unable to deal
effectively with problem like the
present, which requires constructive
action. A court can decide what is
faulty, but it has no power to make
better what it thus finds to be faulty.
There should be an efficient executive
body created with power enough to
correct abuses and scope enough to
work the complex problems that this
great country has developed. 1t is not
sufficient objection to say that such a
body may be guilty of unwisdom or of
abuses. Any governmental body, wheth-
err a court or commission, whether
executive, legislative or judicial, If
given power enough to enable it to do
effective work for good must also in
evitably receive enough power to make
it possibly effective for evil.
Therefore it is clear that unless a
national incorporation law can be
forthwith enacted) some body or
bodies in the executive service should
be given power to pass upon any COM
bination or agreement in relation to
Interstate commerce.. and every such
combination or agreement not thus APP
proved should be treated as in viola
ton of law and prosecuted according
ly The issuance of the securities of
any combination doing interstate bust
ness should-be under the supervision
of the national government
Question of constitutionality.
A strong effort has been made to
have labor organizations completely
exempted from any of the operations
of this law, whether or not their acts
are in restraint of trade. Such eXcep-
ton would in all probability make the
bill unconstitutional, and the legisla-
ture has no more right to pass bill
without regard to whether it is consti-
tutiOnal than the courts have lightly
to declare unconstitutional law
which the legislature has solemnly en-
acted The responsibility is as great
on the one side as the other, and an
abuse of power by the legislature in
one direction is equally to be condemn
ed with an abuse of power by the
courts i'll the other direction. 1t is not
possible wholly to except labor organ
izations from the workings of this law,
and they who insist upon totally ex-
that their status shall be kept wholly
unchanged and that they shall con-
tinue to be exposed to the action which
they now dread Obviously an organ
ization not formed for profit should
not be required to furnish statistics in
any way as complete as those furnish
ed by organizations for profit. More
over so far as labor is engaged in
production only, its claims to be ex-
empted from the antitrust law are
sound This would substantially cover
the rights of laborers to combine. to
strike peaceably and to enter into
trade agreements with the employers.
But when labor undertakes in a
wrongful manner to prevent the dis
tribution and sale of the products of
labor, as by certain forms of the boy
colt, it has left the field of production,
and its action may plainly be in re-
straint of interstate trade and must
necessarily be subject to inquiry, ex-
actly as in the case of any other COM
bination for the same purpose. so as to
determine whether such action is con-
trary to sound public policy. The
heartiest encouragement should be Civ
en- to the wage workers to form labor
unions and to enter into agreements
with their employers, and their right
to strike so long as they act peaceably
must be preserved. But we should
sanction neither boycott nor black.
list, which would be illegal at common
law.
Measures of Double Interest.
TheNmeasures | advocate are in the
interest both of decent corporations
and Of lawabiding labor unions They
are moreover pre-eminently in the in
terest of the public, for in my judg.
ment the American people have def.
nitely made up their minds that the
days of the reign of the great law de.
flying and law eyading corporations are
over and that from this time on the
mighty organizations of capital neces-
sary for the transaction of business
under modern conditions, while en-.
couraged so longNas they act honestly
and in the interest of the general pub
lie, are to be subjected to careful su.
pervision and regulation of kind SC
effective as to insure their acting In
the interest of the people as whole.
Allegations are often made to the
effect that there is no real need fol
these laws looking to the more eff
fective control of the great corpora.
tions upon the ground that they viii
do their work well without such con.
troll. call your attention to the ac