Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-09-08


announcements, and said in part:
The Sherman antitrust law was passed
eighteen years ago; it has crlminal
clause which provides penitentiary pun
ishment for those who conspire IN re-
straint of trade Ever since the enact
ment of the law, with the exception OF
four years, the Republican party has con-
trolled the executive department of the
government, and during two years OF the
four it controlled the House of Repre-
sentatives. Instead of Democratic dere-
LECTION, the Democratic party has been
urging, year after year, the strict enforce
ment of that law, and the Republican
party has been explaining year after year
why it was impossible to enforce 1t. Inc
President has done something toward the
enforcement of the law, but noe nearly
enough, and the Republican leaders have
thwarted him at every point.
The Republican platform says that ex-
perience has shown that the effectiveness
of the antitrust law could be strength
ened by amendments which will give the
federal government greater supervision
and control over and greater publicity as
to the arrangement of those interstate
commerce corporations which have the
power and opportunity to effect monopo-
lies. That is all. No pointing out of
remedies no outlining of plan for more
effective egislation-simply a general
statement that promises nothing in par
ticular. And Mr.. Taft's speech of &C
ceptance is even weaker than the plat
form. He gives no evidence Of having
studied the question or of comprehen1lng
the iniquities Of monopcH. You look
in vain in his notification speech for any
sign of Indignation at what the trusts
have been doing or for evidence of zeal IN
their prosecution. He has, for several
years, been the intimate official companion
of the President, but he has caught none
of the fire which the President manifested
in his message of last January.
Fayors Its determination.
Because private monopoly is indefensi-
bic and intolerable, the Democratic party
favors its determination. 1t pledges itself
to the vigorous enforcement of the Grim
inal law against trust magnates and ON
Gals. 1t is impossible for the Republican
party to enforce the present criminal law
against trust officials these officials are
intimately connected with the Republican
party in the present campaign. Take, for
instance, the chairman of the speaker
committee, Mr.. Dupont of Delaware. lie
is the defendant in suit which the gov
eminent brought and is now prosecuting.
Mr.. Dupont is charged with violation of
the antitrust law. Why should he be
put on the executive committee and then
be given control of the speaking part OF
the campaign?
If you talk to Republican leader
about ,nitentiary punishment for offend
ers, he favors fning the corporation on
the ground that it is impossible to con-
Wet individuals, but when you urge fines
you are told that fines are unjust to in
nocent stockholders. We favor both fine
and imprisonment, but we think it is bet
ter to prevent monopolies than first to
authorize them to prey upon the pubic
and then try to punish them for doing so.
Mr.. Taft favors control of trusts instead
of determination, but after years of ex-
perience the people have learned that the
trusts control the government.
forcement of the law; it demands the
enactment of such additional legislation
as may be necessary to make it impossible
for a private monopoly to exist in the
United States. The Democratic party
does not content itself with a definition
of the wrong or with a denunciation of it
1t proceeds to outline remedies. The first
is a law preventing a duplication of di-
rectors among competing corporations. No
one can object to this remedy 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 competition than to make one
board of directors serve for a number of
competing corporations 1t is not neces-
sary for corporations to enter into an
agreement for the restraint of trade if the
corporations can, without violating the
law, reach the same end by electing the
same directors.
License System rs n Remedy.
The second remedy is one upon which 1
desire to dwell at some length. We be-
iicve it to be a simple, complete and easily
enforced remedy. AS stated in the plat
form it is:
"a license system which will, without
abridging the right Of each State to Gre
ate corporations or it's right to regulate
as it will foreign corporations doing bust
ness within its limits, make it necessary
for a manufacturing or trading corpora
ton engaged in interstate commerce to
take out federal license before it shall
be permitted to control as much as 25 per
cent of the product in which it DEALS the
license TO protect the public from watered
stock and to prohibit the control by such
corporation of more than so per cent
of the total amount of any product con-
sumed in the United States"
If it is conceded that Congress has the
power to prevent the shipment of goods
from one State to another when such
shipment is part of conspiracy against
trade and commerce, then the only ques-
ton is as to the means to be employed to
prevent such shipment. The license sys-
tenn presents an easy way of regulating
such corporations as need federal regula-
ton. The law can prohibit the doing of
a thing and impose penalty for the vio-
lation of the law, but experience has
shown that it is very difficult to gather up
evidence from all sections of the United
States and prosecute great corporation;
so difficult is it that although the Sher-
man antitrust law has been in force for
eighteen years, no trust magnate has been
sent to the penitentiary for violating the
law, although in a few cases the court
has found corporations guilty of viola
ton of the law. In the enforcement of
a penalty the government must seek the
defendant; by the use of the license sys-
tenn the corporation is compelled to seek
the government.
Would Not Prevent Growth.
The license, however, would not prevent
the growth of the corporations licensed.
1t would simply bring them under the eye
of the federal government and compel
them to deal with the public in such a
way as TO afford the public the protection
necessary. One of the restrictions sug
gested is that such licensed corporations
be compelled TO sell to all purchasers in
all parts of the country on the same
r j. &