Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-08-25

Our platform does not stop with the
enforcement Of the law; it demands
the enactment of such additional legis-
lation as may be necessary to make it
impossible for a private monopoly to
exist in the United States.
The democratic party does not con-
tent itself with a definition of the
wrong or with denunciation of it. 1t
proceeds to outline remedies. The first
is a law preventing a duplication OF
directors among competing corpora
tions. No one can object to this rem
edy unless he is in sympathy with the
trusts, rather than with the people
who are victimized by the trusts. There
is no easier way of sitting competi-
ton than to make one board of direc-
tors serve for number Of competing
corporations. 1t is not necessary for
corporations to enter into an agree
ment For the restraint of trade II the
corporations can, without violating the
law, reach the same end by electing
the same directors.
Suggests License System.
t"Tne second remedy is one upon
which desire to dwell at some length.
We believe it to be a simple, complete
and easily enforced remedy. As stat sd
in the platform it is:
CA license system which will, with
out abridging the right Of each state to
create corporations, or its right to reg
ulate as it will foreign corporations do
ing business within it's limits. make 1t
necessary for a manufacturing or
-. io fntor-
state commerce to take out a federal
license tefore 1t shall be permitted to
control as much as twenty-five per
cent of the product in which 1t deals,
the license to protect the public from
watered stock ard to prohibit the con-
troll by such corporation of more than
fifty per cent CT the total amount OF
any product consumed in the United
State.>"
'Tt will be noticed, in the first place,
that care was taken by those who
drew the platform to provide that there
should be no abridgment Of the right
of a state to create corporations, or OF
it's, right to regulate as it will foreign
corporations doing business within its
limits. This plan, therefore, does not
Ill Lie lSdSt lila liAs5S uPSA <AAS = AoN.s -
the states to protect their own people.
It simply provides for the exercise by
congress Of the power vested in it to
regulate interstate commerce. AS long
as a corporation confines itself to the
state in which it is created, congress
can not interfere with it: but when
the corporation engages in interstate
commerce, congress is the only power
that can regulate its interstate busi-
ness.
Not New Doctrine.
sIn proposing the exercise of this
power. the democratic platform is not
asserting a new doctrine. In Janu-
ary, 1896, a republican house of rep
resentatives adopted a resolution call
ing upon Hon. Judson Harmon. then
attorney general of the United States,
now the democratic candidate for
governor in Ohio, to report what steps,
if any, had been taken to enforce the
law of the United States against trusts,
combinations and conspiracies in re-
straint of trade and commerce, ana
what further legislation was, in his
opinion, needed to protect the people
against the same. On the Sth day OF
February he submitted reply, IN
which he described the steps which
were being taken to enforce the law,
and recommended the enactmentlof fur
ther legislation. / caf special atten-
ton to the following words:
"tCongress may make it unlawful to
ship from one state to another, in car
rying out, or attempting to carry out,
the designs of such (state) organlza-
tions, articles produced, owned or con-
trolled by them or any Of their mem
bers or agents.
.eHis recommendation embodies the
very idea which our plan now proposes
to carry out. We want to make 1t un-
lawful for corporation to use the
instrumentalities of interstate COM
merce for the carrying out of a monop-
olistic purpose. Surely no party can
consistently claim to be opposed to
private monopolies which will permit
the interstate railroads to be used TO
carry out the designs of a monopoly,
or which will permit the interstate
telegraph lines to be used to increase
the power of a private monopoly; or,
to make the case stronger, no party
can consistently claim to be opposed
to the trusts which will allow the
mails Of the United States to be used
by the trusts as an agency for the
determination of competition. Cong
ress has already exercised this power
to exterminate lotteries. Why not ex-
ercise it to make private monopolles
impossible?
'If it is conceded that congress has
the power to prevent the shipment OF
goods from cne state to another when
such shipment is a part Of a consplr-
acy against trade and commerce then
the only question is as to the means
to be eni,leyed to prevent such ship
ment Tne license system presents an
easy way of regulating such corpora
tions as need federal regulation. The
law can prohibit the doing of a thing
and impose a penalty for the violation
of the la ", but experience has shown
that it IS very difficult to gather up
evidence from all sections of the I'm
tied States snd prosecute a great cor
rorati5n: SO ufficult is it, that aldho
the Sherman antitrust law has been
in force for eighteen years, no trust
magnate has been sent to the penlten-
tiary for violating the law, altho in
few cases the court has found corpora
tions guilty of a violation of the law.
In the enforcement of a penalty, the
government must seek the defendant;
by the use of the license system. the
corporation is compelled to seek the
government
Defines a Trust.
"a trust can best be defined as a