Hattiesburg daily news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1907-1908, 1908-03-26
ASKS ACTION
BY CONGRESS
Continued from page one.

and the petition for permanent in
junction upon which such temporary
restraining order has been issued
should be heard by the court issuing
the same within reasonable time
say not to exceed week or there
abouts from the date when the order
was issued. 1t is worth considering
whether it would not give greater
popular confidence in the impartial
ity of sentences for contempt If it was
required that the issue should be de-
cided by another judge than the one
issuing the Injunction, except where
the contempt is committed in the pres
ence of the court, or in other case of
urgency.
again call attention to the urgent
need of amending the interstate COM
merce law and especially the antitrust
law along the lines indicated in my
| last message. The interstate COM
merce law should be amended so as
to give railroads the right to make
traffic agreements, subject to these
agreements being approved by the in
| terstate commerce commission and
published in all of their details. The
commission should also be given the
power to make public and to pass
upon the issuance of all securities
hereafter issued by railroads doing
an interstate commerce business.
A law should be passed providing
n in effect that when a federal court
determines to place common car
rier or other public utility concern
under the control of a receivership
the attorney general should have the
right to nominate at least one of the
receivers; or else in some other way
the interests of the stockholders
should be consulted, so that the man
agement may not be wholly redeliv-
cred to the man or men the failure of
whose policy may have necessitated
the creation of the receivership. Re-
ceiverships should be used, not to
operate roads, but as speedily as pos
sible to pay their debts and return
them to the proper owners.
III addition to- the reasons | have
already urged on your attention, il
has now become important that there
should be an amendment of the anti
trust law, because of the uncertainty
as to how this law affects combina
tons among labor men and farmers
If the combination has any tendency
to restrict interstate commerce. Al
of these combinations, if and while
existing for and engaged in the pro
motion of innocent and proper pur
! poses, should be recognized as legal
AS l have repeatedly pointed out, this
antitrust law was most unwisel!
drawn statute. 1t was perhaps newt
able that in feeling after the RICH
remedy the first attempts to provide
such should be crude; and it was All
solutely imperative that some legisla
ton should be passed to control, Il
the interest of the public, the bus
ness use of the enormous aggrega
tons of corporate wealth that are s.
marked a feature of the modern in
dustrial world. But the present anti
trust law, in its construction ant
working, has exemplified only too wei
the kind of legislation which, unde
the guise of being thorough-going, i
drawn up in such sweeping form as t,
become either ineffective or else mis-
chievous.
In the modern industrial world com
binations are absolutely necessary
they are necessary among bushes
men, they are necessary among Labor
ing men, they are becoming more an
more necessary among farmers. Som
of these combinations are among tn
! most powerful of all instruments fc
wrong-doing. Others. offer the onl
effective way of meeting actual bus
ness needs. 1t is mischievous and III
wholesome TO keep upon the statut
books unmodified law, like tn
antitrust law, which, while in pra
tice only partially effective against
cious combinations, has nevertheless
in theory been construed so as swee
:. ingly to prohibit every combinatic
'is for the transaction of modern businei
Some real good has resulted fro
this law. But the time has con
4. when it is imperative to modify
s. Such modification is urgently need
II. for the sake of the business men
~ the country, for the sake OF the was
workers, and for the sake of t