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

time monOpOiZe most of the Interstate
business of the country. and we be
lieve the control can best be exercised
by preventing the growth of abuses
rather than merely by trying to de
stroy them when they have already
grown. In the highest sense of the
word this movement for thorough con
troll of the business use of this great
wealth is conservative We are trying
to steer a safe middle course. which
alone can save us from a plutocratiC
class government on the one hand or a
socialistic class government on the
other, either of which would be
fraught with disaster to our free insti
tutions. state and national We are
trying to avoid alike the evils which
would flow from government owner
ship of the public utilities. by which
interstate commerce is chiefly carried
on. and the evils which flow from the
riot and chaos. of unrestricted individ
ualism. There is grave danger to oul
free institutions in the corrupting in.
fuence exercised by great wealth sud.
denly concentrated in the hands of the
few We should in sane manner try
to remedy this danger in spite of the
sullen opposition of these few very
powerful men and with the full pur-
pose to protect them in all their rights
at the very time that we require them
to deal rightfully with others. When
with steam and electricity modern
business conditions went through the
astounding revolution which in this
country began over half a century ago,
there was at first much hesitation as
to what particular governmental agen-
cy should be used to grapple with the
new conditions. At almost the same
time, about twenty years since, tho
effort was made to control combina.
tons by regulating them through the
interstate commerce commission and
to abolish them by means of the anti.
trust at, the two remedies therefore
being in part mutually Incompatible.
The interstate commerce law has pro
duced admirable results, especially
since it was strengthened by the Hep
burn law two years ago The anti
trust law, though it worked some good,
because anything is better than an
archy and complete absence of regula-
ton, nevertheless has proved in many
respects not merely inadequate, but
mischleyous. Twenty years ago the
misuse of corporate power had pro-
duced almost every conceivable form
OF abuse and had worked the graveSt
injury TO business morality and the
public conscience. For a long time
federal regulation of interstate com
merce had been purely negative, the
national judiciary merely acting in iso-
lated cases to restrain the state from
exercising a power which it was clear
ly unconstitutional as well as unwise
for them to exercise, but which never
theless the national government itself
failed to exercise. Thus the corpora
tons monopolizing commerce made the
law for themselves, state power and
common law being inadequate to ac-
complish any effective regulation and
the national power not yet having been
put forth. The result was misehievous
in the extreme and only shortsighted
and utter failure to appreciate the
grossness of the evils to which the lack
of regulation gave rise can excuse the
well meaning persons who now desire
to abolish the antitrust law outright or
to amend it by simply condemning
unreasonable" combinations
To Permit Combinations.
Power should unquestionably be
lodged somewhere in the executive
branch of the government to permit
combinations which YIN further the