Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-08-26
HOLDING COMP ANY
SUCCEEDS TRUST
PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN BAR
ASSOCIATION POINTS TO
PRESENT EVILS.
GREED HAS NOT CHANGED ITS
NATURE-CRUMBS OF FALSE
BALANCE.

Detroit, Aug. 25-The excise ta>
upon corporations imposed at the spe
cieI session of congress has a signih
canoe far beyond its revenue features
! according to Frederick W. Lehman
president of the American Bar asso
citation, who delivered his annual ad
/ dress at the meeting Of the organiza
| ton yesterday. 1t IS Of highest i'm
pogtance as the opening door to regu
| latiOn which VIII broaden with the
years. said Mr. Lehman. There is
in this no ipvas on of merely private
affairs A business conducted by
corporate methods is not a private
business. Corporate powers are moi
natural rights and the general wei
fare is the only justification for the
grant of them. The right OF public
supervision inheres in them and is as
broad as the interests that may be al
fected."
Mr.. Lehman declared that the
trust is obsolete. Nobody now is SC
ignorant or so defiant of law as to
thing of forming one, said he. And
it is very easy to do much better
Out of the ashes of the trust has
| come the holding company, the trust
in an improved perfected form. The
holding company does and is designed
| to do exactly what was done by the
trust, and does it more efficiently,
Is i, under the ban of the law? Ger
tainly not in all Of the states"
Mr.. Lehman mentioned the prohi-
bition in Montana against trusts.
| Having slain the senile and debili-
tated ',rust,' they made invulnerable
through legitimacy its youthful and
sturdy successor, the holding com
pany," said he The speaker said
these two laws stand together, with
the result that any industry Or bust.
ness of the state may be legally
monopolized, provided it is we'll ana
thoroughly done, and no halfway
measures are employed This conds
ton of the law exists in other states
he asserted.
But the holding company is no.
the full and final development Of in
dustrial combination" continued Mr.
Lehman. THAT is reached in the
single corporation with unlimited
power of capitalization and direct
ownership of the business and proper
ties with which it deals. Here is
ell minated even the disturbing ele
ment of minority interests in constitu
ent companies. Yet states which
prohibit trusts and assume to pro
! hibit monepolies, set no bounds tC
| the capitalization Of their corpora
| tions or fix the limit so high that I'm
der it many industries may be com
| pletely engrossed.
| The result of such legislation is
| simply to prevent combination where
| the appearance of competition is
maintained and to sanction it where
| the combination. is open, avOwed anC
most effective. That certainly was
not the popular purpose. The move
ment against trusts was against the
monopoly of industry or business
| however accomplished, and the more
! thoroughly it was done, the greater
was the objection to it. The assur
ance that the economies resulting
from combination would cheaper pro
duction and that this would go to the
| benefit of the consumer was never
| accepted. Our people have no faith
| in a benevolent despotism. They
know that power tends to abuse. A
| corporation large enough to engrOss
an industry canOt be trusted to gen
erous or even a just use of its mas
! terry. An enlightened self-interest
may find it's real and lasting advan
| tage in moderation, but self-interest
does not mean acknowledgements
| Recent disclosures show that greed
has not changed it's nature and still
| grows by what it feeds upon. The
complete absorption Of a rival is no
beyond it's capacity, and the crumbs
of a false balance are not beneath it,
! c0vatousness.
mo state can deal with the prob
lem singIy and master it, and there
has been and can be no concert o
action between the states.
The great industrial corporations
are in practical effect as much agen
cies of inteTst ate commerce as arr
the great carrier companies. If TIT
production of a commodity is unde
one control, commerce in that com
modify is under the same control
| I,,,+ ,,pfor+unatp1v nrodlIc-ioD TS hell
not to be within the commerce claus
Of the federal constitution, and 81
combinations to engross product OF
may be effected, because the genera
government cannot prevent them, ant
the states in which they are locate;
will not But something can be dom
under the taxing power
TOO MUCH DIAMOND.