The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-14
WILSON SCORES REPUBLICANS Simmons Goes After MT.
 Roosevelt. TIE JEFFERSON ANNIVERSARY Annual Banquet of the National
 Democratic Club. Famous Educator Deplores Tendency to Override the Constitution and Transfer All Power to Chief
 Executive.
TIE JEFFERSON ANNIVERSARY

New York, April lS.-Democrdts prominent in the state and nation to the number of 400 gathered tonight at the Hotel Knickerbocker, where the 165th anniversary of the birth Of Thomas Jefferson was celebrated at a dinner by the National Democratic Club. Illness prevented the attend ance of two of the promised speakers, Senator Robert L. Taylor, Tennessee, whose toast was unassigned, and Ed ward M Sheppard, who was to have responded to Jefferson and the Dem ocratic Party"
 The principal speakers were United States Senator owen, of Oklahoma, United States Senator Simmons, of North Carolina. and President Wood row Wilson, of Princeton University.
 President Wilson spoke to the toast, Law or Personal power
 He spoke in part as follows:
 President Wilson Speaks.
 We hear great deal of candida cies and programs, but very little of principles. Parties seem almost to have gone to pieces and to have become tndistinguishable. except in so far as men by habit call themselves by this party name or by that.
 Both parties have with like eager ness turned to the regulation of the business of the country, the restraint and regulation of the great business corporations. and vie with each other propose; but the measures of the one might be the measures of the other. They are virtually indistinguishable Tn principle. and the principle they have in common Is bad principle, which. if carried far enough in its application. would inevitably change the whole !s time we stopped, for little. speak ing of candidates and und srto0k to test measures by principles.
 The greater part of the business of the country has come Into the bands of great corporations and trusts, and its new aspects unquestionably require law. which the courts hays not had the power or the courage to make, and which must, therefore. be made by lcg- islation. The mere scale of business operations. moreover. has vastly ln- creased. Comparatively small groups ofmen in control of great corporations, wields a power and control over the wealth and the business operations of the country which makes them seem rivals of the Government itself. Law must be strengthened and adapted~to' keep them in curb and to make them subservient to the general welfare.
 "No one now advocates the old lais- sez faire; no one .questions the neces- sity for a firm and comprehensive reg ulation of business operations in the interest of fair dealing, of responsi- ble exercise of power. We are all ad- vocates of a firm and effective regula- tion, but those of us who are Demo- crats challenge the prevailing princi- pies of regulation, the principles which the Republican Party has introduced and carried to such radical lengths and which some Democrats. confused by the glamour of the hour. have toe thoughtlessly and hastily espoused.
 Executive Regulation.
 I've have in fact turned from legal regulation to executive regulation. We erYs sr. It tuist is that % choice % V wkich as Pem- ocrats we challenge, and challenge with confidence. as opposed to every ancient principle of liberty and of just
 Have we given up law? Must we fall back, on discretionary executive power? The Government of the United arbitrary, that is, discretionary exec uttye power. If we return. to 1t. we abandon the very principles of our foundation, give up the English and American experiment and turn back to discredited models of Government.
 "A mere casual examination of re- cent legislation % will % show that these or upon exaggeratiop. but upon the nec- essary character of the things we have SesS tryI6ag Ia scG;naa te GS; naw tS Whica cannot tions which 1t is the purpose of the Legislature to forbid is not ready to become law at all, and yet 1t Is just that that our recent statutes enacted by way of regulating some of the most important enterprises tof the country have failed to do. They have run in vague terms, Jumping I0lnkS DSrmIS- sible with things unpermissible, inter- fering with business without analysing 1t or carefully discriminating its good and bad features.
 And then when the results were un- satisfactory they have sought to-lodge the power to discriminate, to permit sions with very extensive discretion ary powers, administrative in charac- ter, not judicial; for no process Is ju- diical which does not rest upon defini- Act tof AA a nd visions of known law.
 The Sherman act was as clumsy as 1t has been intellectual. and the remedy for it has been to lodge the power to discriminate between what 1t should have forbidden and what 1t should have permiteed in the hands of bodies of commissloners appointed by the
 Pooling of Interests.
 The latest proposals are typical of agreements in restraint of trade had been forbidden by statutes. But some agreements in restraint of trade, some roads. for instance. do not in fact op- crate to the detriment of the public or of trade itself, but are beneficial rath- CT and to be desired in the interest alike of efficiency and economy.
 "The lawmakers, upon that discov- cry, are not invited by the reformers will discriminate between those agree ments in restraint of trade which are innocent of monopolistic intent or eff feet and desirable in the interest of the community itself, from those which the vague original law was intended to prevent. They are urged, on the con- trary, to put the whole matter in the hands of an executive officer.
 ''It is proposed to invite all corpor- ations Syhich wish to keep within the limits of the law, to register with him and submit all their contracts and ar engagements to him for his sanction or aisapprovaI, to let hum make law bA| executive order.
 'fThe principle underlying the laws which have here and there set up pow srful public service commissions is the same. : These commissions are author lzed to administer precise rules of law made clear in the definition of stat utes, but to order this, that, or the other alteration addition or adjust ment, in the actual administratio of the business of the corporations which they are set 10 supervise.