Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-01-31

to invade the 1u1lQa'nentdl IlShIS W
the Individual.
1T is my purpose as soon as may
be to submit some further recon-
mendations in reference to our laws
regulating labor conditions within the
sphere of federal authority. A very
recent decision of the supreme court
of the United States rendered since
this message was written in the case
OF Adair VS.. United States, seeming
ly of far reaching import and OF very
serious probable consequences, mas
modified the previously entertained
views on the powers of the congress
in the premises to such degree as to
make necessary careful consideration
of the opinions therein filed before II
is possible definitely to decide in what
way 10 call the matter to your atten-
ton.
Broader Commerce Law.
"Not only should there be action on
certain laws affecting wage -earners'
there should also be such action on
laws better to secure control over the
great business concerns engaged IN IN
terstate commerce, and especially over
the great common carriers. The inter-
state commerce commission should be
empowered to pass upon any rate or
practice on its own initiative. More
over, it should be provided that When-
ever the commission has reason to be-
lieve that proposed advance in rate
ought not to be made without 1nVesu-
CATION, it should have authority to is
sue an order prohibiting the advance
pending examination by the commits
sion.
II would not be understood as eX-
pressing an opinion that any or seysR
a majority of these advances are~1m-
proper. Many of the rates in this
country have been abnormally low.
The operating expenses Of our rail-
roads, notably the wages paid railroad
employees, have greatly increased.
These and other causes may in any
given case justify an advance in rates.
and if so the advance should be per-
mitted and approved. But there may
be, and doubtless are, cases where this
is not true; and our law should be
so framed that the government, as the
representative of the whole people. can
protect the individual against unlaw-
full exaction for the use Of these public
highways. The interstate commerce
commission should be provided with
the means to make a physical valua-
ton of any road as to which it deems
this valuation necessary. In some form
the federal government should exercise
supervision over the financial opera
tions of our interstate railroads. In
no other way can justice be done be-
tween the private owners of those
properties and the public which pay
their c.-arges.
Il think that the federal government
must also assume certain measure of
control over the physical operation of
railways in the handling of interstate
traffic. the. commission now has au-
thority to establish thru routes and
joint rates. In order to make this
provision effective and in order to pro-
mote in times of necessity the proper
movement of traffic, I think it must
also have authority to determine the
conditions upon which cars shall be
interchanged between different inter-
state railways. 1t is also probable that
the commission should have authority,
in particular instances, to determine
the schedule upon which perishable
commodities shall be moved.
Hits at the Trusts.
'In reference to the Sherman anti
trust law, I repeat the recommenda-
tions made in my message at the op-
ening Of the present congress, as well
as in my message to the previous con-
gress. The attempt in this law to
provide in sweeping terms against all
II nf -ho nbor
il: technic ally in restraint of
trade as such restraint has
been defined by the courts,
must necessarily be either futile or
mischievous, and sometimes both The
present law makes some combina-
tons illegal, altho they may be useful
to the country. On the other hand, as,
to some huge combinations which are
both noxious and illegal, even if the
action undertaken against them under
the law by the government is success
full, the result may be to work but a
minimum benefits to the public. Even
tho the combination be broken up and
a small measure of reform thereby
produced, the real good aimed at can
not be obtained, for such real good
can come only by a thorough and con-
tinuing supervision over the acts of
the combination in all it's parts, so as
to prevent stock watering, improper
forms of competition, and, in short,
wrongdoing generally. The law should
correct that portion of the Sherman
act which prohibits all combinations
of the character above described,
whether they be reasonable or un-
reasonable; but this should be done
only as part of a general scheme to
provide for this effective and thor
oughgoing supervision by the national
government of all the operations of the
big interstate business concerns.
THE attacks by these great corpor-
ations on the administrations actions
have been given a wide circulation
thruout the country, in the newspa-
pers and otherwise, by those writers
and speakers who, consciously or un-
consciously, act as the representatives
of predatory wealth-of the wealth
accumulated on giant scale by all
forms Of iriquity, ranging from the
oppression of wage workers to unfair
and unwholesome methods of crush
ing out competition, and to defrauding
the public by stock jobbing and the
manipulation of securities. Certain
wealthy men of this stamp, whose
conduct should be abhorrent to every
man of ordinarily decent conscience,
and who commit the hideous wrong of
teaching our young men that phenom-
email business success must ordinarily
hax ~,