The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-04-30

OF great wealth or the man of power
and position u the industrial world, who
by his lack OF sympathy with, and lack
Of understanding of, still more by any
exhibition Of uncompromising hostility to,
the millions of our working people, tends
70 Unite them against their felloW-Ameri-
cans who are better off In this worlds
goods. 1t is a bad thing to teach our
working people that men Of means. that
men who have the largest proportion of
the substantial comforts of life, are nee
essarily greedy, graspillg and cold-hearted,
and that they unjustly demand and APP
propriate more than their. share of the
substance of the many. Stern condem-
nation should be visited pom demagpgue
and visionary who teach this untruth, and
even sterner upon those capitalists who
are In truth crashing and greedy and
brutally ~disregardlfuI of the rights of
others, and who by their actions teach
the dreadful lesson far more effectively
than any mere preacher of unrest. a
class grievance" left too long without
remedy breeds class consciousness and
therefore class resentment.
Strengthen Antitrust Law.
The strengthening of the ANTITRUST law
is demanded upon both moral and eco
nomic grounds. Our purpose in strength
en1ng 1t Is to secure more effective con-
troll by the national government over the
business use of the vast masses of in
~dtvidual, and especially OF corporate,
wealth, which at the present time mo-
Of the country; and; we believe the con
troll can best be exercised by preventing
the growth of abuses. rather than merely
by trying 70 destroy them when they have
the word this movement for thorough COM
troll of the business use Of this great
wealth Is conservative. We are trying to
steer q safe middle course. which alone
can save us from a plutocratic class gov
eminent on the one hand. or a socialistic
class government or the other. either of
which would be fraught with disaster to
our free institutions, state and national.
We are trying to avoid alike the evils
which would flow from government owner
ship. of the public utilities by which in
~terstate is chiefly carried on,
and the evils which flow from the riot
and chaos of unrestricted i~ndfvidualisln.
stitutions in the corrupting influence exer-
cised by great wealth suddenly coEcen-
trated in the hands of the few. We should
IN sane manner try to remedy this dam
ger. in spite of the sullen opposition OF
these few very powerful men. and with
the fuli purpose to protect them IN all
require them to deal rightfully with oth-
erS. .
When with steam and electricity modern
business conditions went through the as
founding revolution which in this country
began over half a century ago, there was
at first much hesitation as to what par
ticular governmental agency should be
used to graphic with the new conditions.
At almost the same time, about twenty
years since, the effort was made to CON
troll combinations by regulating them
through the Interstate Commerce commits
sion, and to abolish them by means of
the antitrust act; the two remedies there
lore being in part mutually. incompatible.
The Interstate law has pro-
ddced admirable results, especially since
1t was strengthened by the Hepburn law
two years ago. The antitrust law. though
1T worked some good. because anything
is better than anarchy and complete abb
sence of regulation, nevertheless has
proved in many respects not merely in
adequate bur mischievous. Twenty years
ago the misuse of corporate power had
p.oduced almost every conceivable form
of abuse, and had worked the gravest
injury to business morality and the pub
lie conscience. For Il long time federal
regulation of interstate hat,
been purely negative, the national iueiici-
AIRY merely acting in isolated cases 70
restrain the state from exercising a power
which it was clearly Unconstitutional as
wen as unwise for them to exercise, but
ment itself failed to exercise. Thus the
corporations monopoltzing inace
the law for themselves, state power anu
common law being inadequate to accom-
pltsh any effective regulation. and the.
national power moi YET having been put
forth. The result vas ruischieyous IN the
failure TO appreciate the grossRess OF tGe
evils to which the lack of regulation gave
rise, can excuse the weli-meaning persons
VINO now desire to abolish the antitrust
law outright. or to amend 1t by simply
coneemning unreasonable" combinations.
Executive Power.
Power should unquestionabiy be lodged
m the executive branch OF the.
government to permit combinations which
VIII further the public interest; bur ii
must always be remembered that, as re-
CARDS the great and wealthy conbipat:ous
through which most of the interstate bust
should be on them to show that they
have a right to exist. No judicial t~riouaai
has the knowledge or the experiences to
determine in the first place whether a
given combination is advisable or neces-
sars in the interest of the pubic. Some
pody, whether a commission or a bureau
under the department CT commerce and
labor, should be given this power. Ny
personal belief is that ultimately we s..ail
nave to adopt a nationa. incorpora ZION
law, though | am well aware tfat this
may be impossible at present. Over the
set1ons of the executive cody in which
the power is placed the courts should
possess merely a power of review aaa,os-
GUS to that obtaining in connection with
the work of the Interstate Commerce corn
mission at present. To confer this power
would not be a leap in the dark; it you'd
merely be to carry still further the the.
ory of effective oNeinrnen coltrel Gs
generations which was Responsible for
the creation of the Interstate Coma rca
commission and for the enlargement 3f
its powers. end for the creation Of the
bureau of corporations The Interstate
bG,niag r iss1 haa has worried admira-
benefited honestly manage and wisel,.
conducted railroads; and in spite of tbs
at Sidl tHS BUSINESS OF the country has
enormously increased, the value OF this
federal legislation has been shown by the
way In which 1t has enabled the federal
government 10 correct the most uro-
nounced of the great and varied abiIses
which existed in the bushes world twen-
ty years ago--while the many abuses that
still remain emphasize the need Of fur
Ihef and more t~horough-going legislation.
similarly. tie bureau of corporations has
amply justified its creation. In other
words, 1t is clear that the prIncinIes en-
ployed to remedy the great evils in the
business world have worked wen, and thew
can now be employed to correct the evils
that further commercial growth has
brought more prominently TO the surface
The powers and scope OF the Interstate
commerce commission, and of any similar
body, such as the bureau of eorporatinn
which has to deal with thc matter in
hand. should be greatly enlarged SO as
to meet the requirements of the present
day.
States Can't Control.
The decisions of the supreme court in
the Minnesota and North Carolina casss
Illustrate how impossible is a dual cor
troll of national commerce.. The states
cannot control It. All they can do is to
control interstate and this nov.
forms but a small fraction of the com.
MERGE carried by the railroads through
each state. Actual experience has shown
that the effort at state control is sure to
be IGlilified In one way or another sooper