The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-28


 which most of the interstate busine B
 of to-day is done, the burden of proof 1 sh ould be on them to show that they i have a right to exist. No judicial 1 tribunal has tn knowledge or the eX- i perience to determine in the first place
 whether given combination Is advisa- i ble or necessary in the interest of the l public. Some body, whether commis- | sion or a bureau under the department l of commerce and labor, sh ould be given
 this power My personal belief is that 1 ultimately we shall have to adopt q | national incorporation law, though l | am we'll aware that this may be inn l possible at present. Over the actions 1 of the executive body in which the | power is placed the courts should pos- ! sess merely a power of review analog- | ous to that obtaining in connection with the work of the interstate com l merce commission at present. To con- | fer this power would not be a leap in ] the dark; it would merely be to carry i still further the theory of effective ! governmental control of corporations
 which was responsible for the creation 1 of the interstate commerce commission and for the enlargement of it's powers.
 and for the creation of the bureau oe corporations. The interstate commer 70 1 legislation has worked admirably. It 1 has benefited the public; it has bene l fitted honestly managed and wisely con I ducted railroads and in spite of the i fact that the business of the country has enormously increased, the value of this federal legislation has been i shown by the way in which it has en- abled the federal government to cor rect the most pronounced of the great
 and varied abuses which existed in tn Q business world 20 years ago=whi,e l the many abuses that still remain em- phasize the need of further and mo re thorough going legislation. Similarly 1 the bureau of corporations has amply justified it's creation. In other words, it is clear that the principles employed to remedy the great evils in the busi- ness world have worked well, and they 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 corporations, which has to deal with the matter in hand should be greatly
 enlarged so as to meet the require
 ments of the present day.
 Dual Control.
 The decisions of the supreme court in the Minnesota and North Carolina cases
 illustrate how impossible is a dual con trol of national commerce. The state
 
 to control intrastate commerce, and this now forms but small fraction of the commerce carried by the railroads | through each state. Actual experience has shown that the effort at state con | trol is sure to be nullifed in one way 1 or another sooner or later. The nation | alone can act with effectiveness and wis., dom; it should have the control both of the business and of the agent by which ! the business is done, for any attempt to
 separate this control must result in gro- l tesque absurdiy. This means that we 1 must rely upon national legislation to | prevent the commercial abuses that now l exist and the others that are sure to arise l unless some efficient government body l has adequate power of control over them At present the failure of the Congress to 1 utilize and exercise the great powers con 1 ferred upon it as regards interstate com l merce leaves this commerce to be regu- 1 lated, not by the state nor by the Con i gress, but by the occasional and neces- sarily inadequate and one-sided action Of l the fedreal judiciary. However upright 1 and able court is, it can not act con | structively; It can only act negatively or l destructively, as an agency of govern ] ment; and this means that the courts are
 and must always be unable to deal ef- | Actively with a problem like the present, I which requires constructive action A | court can decide what is faulty but it | has no power to make better what it thus
 mus to be faulty. There should be an
 efficient executive body created with l power enough to correct abuses and scope | enough to work out the complex problems | that this great country has developed. l It is not sufficient objection to say that
 such a body may be guilty of unwisdom
 or of abuses. Any governmental body, | whether a court or a commission, Whetil- a 1 given power enough to enable it to do l effective work for good, must also in- | evitably recive enough power to make l It possibly effective for evil.
 Therefore, it is clear that (unless a na-
 tional incorporation law can be forth | with enacted) some body or bodies in | the executive service should be given l power to pass upon any combination or l agreement in relation to interstate com l merce, and every such combination or 1 agreemnt not thus approved should be
 treated as in violation of law and prose
 cuted accordingly. The issuance of tho | securities of any combination doing inter | state business should be under the super
 vision of the national governments
 Exemption for Labor.
 | A strong effort has been made to have | labor organizations completely exempted 1 from any of the operations of .-..s law | Of trade. Such exception would in all l probability make the bill unconstitutional 1 and the legislature has no more right to pass bill without regard to whether il l is constitutional than the courts have lightly to declare unconstitutional law i which the legislature has solemnly en- { acted. The responsibility is as great on | the one side as on the other, and an
 abuse of power by the legislature is one direction is equally to be condemned with
 an abuse of power by the courts in the
 ether direction It is not possible wLo..,
 to except labor organizations from the
 workings of this law, and they who insist ! upon totally excepting them are merely l providing that their status shall be kept , wholly unchanged, and that they shall | continue to be exposed to the action
 which they now dread Obviously, an or
 ganizatio not formed for profit should
 not be required to furnish statistics in 1 any way as complete as those furnishel ] I by organizations for profit. Moreover, SC
 far as labor is engaged in production only, it's claims to be exempted from the anti ] trust law are sound. This would sub
 stantially cover the right of laborers to | combine, to strike peaceably, and to enter | into trade acreemntS with the employers