The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1908-04-30

as an agency Of government; and this
means that the courts are and must
always be unable to deal effectively
with a problem like the present,
which requires constructive action A
court can decide what is faulty, but
IL has no power to make better what
1t thus finds TO be faulty There
should be an efficient executive body
created with power enough to
correct abuses and scope enough
to work out the complex problems
that this great country has developed.
1t is not sufficient objection to say
that such body may be guilty Of un-
wisdom or Of abuses. Any govern
mental body, whether a court or a
commission whether executive, legis-
lative or judicial, IL given power
enough to enable IL to do effective
work for good. must also inevitably
receive enough power to make II pos
sibly effective for evil
Therefore, II 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
approved should be treated as in vio-
lation Of law and prosecuted accord
ingly. The issuance of the securities
Of any combination doing interstate
business should be under the super.
vision of the national government.
Labor Unions.
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 Inf restraint Of trade. Such excep-
tion would in all probability make the
bill unconstitutional and the legisla-
ture has no more right to pass a bill
without regard to whether It is con-
stitutional than the courts have light
ly to. declare unconstitutional a law
which the legislature has solemnly
enacted. The responsibility is as
great on the one side as on the other,
and an abuse of power by the legisla-
condemned with an abuse Of power
by the courts in the other direcuon. 1t
IL not possible wholly to except labor
organizations from the workings OF
this law, and they who insist upon to-
tally excepting them are merely pro
viding that their status shall be kept
wholly unchanged, and that they shall
| 10 hn 10 hn
which they now dread Obviously, an
organization not formed for profit
should not be required to furnish sta
tistics in any way as complete as
those furnished by organizations for
profit. Moreover. so far as labor is
engaged in production only. it's claims
to be exempted from the antitrust
law are sound This would substan-
TALLY cover the right OF laborers to
combine, to strike peaceably and to
enter into trade agreements with the
employers. But when labor under
takes in a wrongful manner to pre-
vent the distribution and sale of the
products OF labor, as by certain forms
OF the boycott, it has left the field OF
be in restraint of interstate trade,
and must necessarily be subject to in
quiry, exactly as in the case OF any
other combination for the same pur.
pose, so as to determine whether such
action is contrary TO sound public pol.
icy. The h11rtiesS announcement
should be given wage-workers to form
lah IN fnfn
ments with their employers, and their
right to strike, so long as they act
peaceably, must be preserved. But
we should sanction neither a boycott
nor a blacklist which would be ille-
gal at common law.
The measures I advocate are in the
interest both of decent corporations
and of law-abidink labor unions. They
are, moreover, pre-eminently in the
interest of 'Ne public, for In my judg-
ment the American people have defin-
itely made up their minds that the
days of the reign of the great law-de-
flying and 'aw-evading corporations
are over, and that from this time on
the mighty organizations of capital
necessary lot the ITduSdCIlOu OF DuSl-
ness under modern conditions, while
encouraged so long as they act hon
estly and in the interest OF the gen.
eral public are TO be subjected to
careful supo vision and regulation of
a kind so effective as to insure their
acting in the interest of the people as
a whole.
Allegations are often made TO the
effect that there is no real need for
these laws looking to the more effec-
tive control Of the great corporations,
upon the ground that they will do
their work well without such control.
call your attention to the accom-
panying copy of report, Just submit
ted by Mr.. Nathan Matthews, chair
man of the finance committee, to the
mayor and city council Of Boston re-
lating to the certain evil practices Of
various corporations which have been
bidders for furnishing to the city iron
and steel This report shows that
there have been extensive combina-
tions formed among the various cor