The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-01-22
" FATHER OF THE TRUSTS"
JUDGE DILL PASSES ON. THEIR
CRIMES AND INSTANTANEOUS.
Friend and Adviser of Corporations
for Years Has Been Appointed
to the Court of Appeals.

TO the court OF Appears.
There are few men who would give
up corporation law practice worth
from S250,OOO to 100000 yearly
to become a Judge at a salary of So
0O0 a year Yet that is what James
B. Dill, "the father of the trusts,
did a couple of years ago Judge
Dill well deserves the title of father
of the trusts Single-handed he
drafted the charters of 35 of the big
gest combinations ever created, and
it is said that he had a hand in the
organization of more than 700 AS
a corporation architect his success
may never be equaled, and in fees
from charter drawing alone he rolled
up an Independent fortune One of
the first to see that the vast business
interests of the country had out
grown the partnership device, Judge
Dill worked for months over the in
tricacies of corporation formation.
Then an ambitious governor-Abbott
of New Jersey-asked how he could
increase the revenue of that state.
Broaden your laws so that New
Jersey will become the home of cor
porations, came a gratuitous opin-
! ion
DRAW up the right sort of bill, ;"
was the next gubernatorial request.
There resulted the famous New Jer-
sey corporation registration law,
which sent many of the great trusts
from Standard Oil down on a hurry
offered protection under the English
system.
Mr.. Dill was paid 100000 for
reconciling the divergent interests
and demands of Andrew Carnegie
and Henry Clay Frick Temporarily,
at least, he made friends and bust
ness partners of the two avoWed enc
mics, and singular to say both men
were entirely satisfied over Mr.. Dill's
settlement of their differences. They
were $30,000,000 apart when Mr..
Dill was called in to find a basis of
agreement, and each conceded that
the lawyers labors, which consumed
two weeks, were worth half mill
lion.
Judge Dill, while a corporation
and trust lawyer, nevertheless had
certain professional principles which
he resolutely upheld.
1--WE originally sought consolidation
for the purpose of added strength,
he declared toward the close of his
career as an attorney Now, in
many cases, combination is sought
as a device through which to cover
imperfections, to hide deficiency, to
join the weak with the strong, to
conceal fraud and pass over to the
public as a sound proposition the
corporation thus fashioned. Some of
these combinations are using their
resources and their energies to ac-
complish their own ends without due
regard to the rights of individuals
or of the public. They do this nat
urally. Power always carries with
it an instructive human desire to
adopt the theory that might is right.
He was in this frame of mind
when Governor Stokes offered him
the appointment as judge of the
court of error and appeals of New
Jersey. Declaring he had made
enough money, he put aside his rich
practice and accepted the dignified
but meagerly-thatched judgeship,
which presents a curious paradox;
having made the trusts in their legal
form he is now adjudging their
crimes and misdemeanors. The week
before he donned the judicial robes
he laid down directorships in more
than a hundred companies.