The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-26


  publican House of Representative adopt ed a resolution calling upon Hon. Jud- son Harmon, then Attorney General of the United States, now the democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, to re- port what steps, if any. had been taken to enforce the law of the United States against trusts, combinations and con- spiracies in restraint of trade and com merce, and what further legislation was, in his opinion. needed to protect the peo- pie against the same. On February he submitted a reply. in which he described the steps which were being taken to en- force the law. and recommended the en- actment of further legislation. l call special attention to the following words:
 Congress may make 1t unlawful to ship from one state to another. in carry ing out, or attempting to carry out, the designs of such (state) organizations, ar tices produced. owned or controlled by them or any of their members or agents. ,"
 Unlawful Methods.
 His recommendation embodies the very idea which our plan now proposes to carry out. We want to make 1t unlawful for a corporation to use the instrument talities of interstate commerce for the carrying out of monopolstlc purpose Surely no party can consistently claim to be opposed to private monopolies which will permit the interstate railroads to be used to carry out the designs of mo- nopoly or which will permit the inter- state telegraph lines to be used to in crease the power of a private monopoly; or, to make the case stronger, no party can consistently claim to be opposed to the trusts which will allow the mails Of the United States to be used by the trusts as an agency for the extermina- ton of competition. Congress has al- ready exercised this power to extermi- nate lotteries Why not exercise 1t to make private monopoles impossible?
 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 a conspiracy against trade and commerce, then the only question is as to the means to be employed to prevent such shipment. The license system presents an easy way or regulating such corporations as need fed eral regulation. The law can prohioil .ie doing of A thing and impose a penalty for the violation of the law, but exper- fence has shown that 1t Is very difficult to gather up evidence from all sections of the United States and prosecute great corporation; so difficult Is it, that all though the sherman antitrust law has been in force for IS years, no trust mag nate has been sent to the penitentiary for violating the law. although in a few cases the court has found corporations guilty of a violation of the law. In the enforce ment of a penalty, the government must seek the defendant; by the use of the license system the corporation is com pelled to seek the government.
 A trust can best be defined as cor poratlon which controls so large pro- portion of the total quantity of any ar ticle used in this country as to be able to regulate the price and terms of sale, and as the proportion controlled deter mines the power of the trust for harm, 1t has seemed best to use proportionate con- trol as the basis of this plan. and 25 per cent has been fixed arbitrarily as the proportion at which the line should be drawn. A corporation which controls less than 25 per cent of the product in which 1t deals, may, in extraordinary cases, ex- ert a perceptible influence in controlling the price of the product and the terms Of
 sale, but as a rule a corporation must
 control more than that percentage of the
 total product before it can exert a hurt
 ful influence on trade. Under this plar the small corporations are left entirely free and unhampered. This is not a dis crimination against the larger corpora tion but a recognition of the fact that rules are necessary in the case of corpor- ations controlling a large percentage ot the product which are not necessary ir the case of smaller corporations. Prob ably not 1 per cent of the corporations engaged in interstate commerce would be required to take out a license under this plan-possibly not one-half of pei cent-and yet what protection the re-
 maining 99 per cent would find in the law requiring license in the case of the larger onesi
 Taft's Criticism.
 The license, however. would not prevent the growth of the corporations licensed It would simply bring them under the eye of the federal government and com. pei them to deal with the public in sucf a way as to afford the public the protec- tion necessary. One of the restrictions suggested is that such licensed corpora tions be compelled to sell to all purchas. CTS In all parts of the. country on the mo tarns after making due allowance