The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-07-09
CABINET ATTORNEY
PLEADS THE CAUSE
OF VARIOUS TRUSTS
WIcKERsHAM SHOWS HIS HAND
BY ASKING FOR NATIONAL
INCORPORATION
FOLLOWS INCOME TAX LAW
Republican Attorney-General Delivers
Significant Address That May
Have been Inspired by Taft-.Would
curtail Power of the States.

PADUCAH, KY, July S.-State con-
troll of corporations doing an inter-
state business was discussed here
Wednesday night in an address before
the State Bar Association, by George
/ w Wickersham, Attorney General OF
the United States. OF paramount i'm
portance, because Mr.. Wickersham
gave complete treatment of the trust
question, as it appears to the present
national administration, the address
was notable chiefly for the recommen-
cation made by the Attorney General
that Congress should enact law pro-
viding for nationally created incorpo-
rations to carry on interstate com.
merce.
Previously, by exhaustive reference
to important State and Federal court
decisions, Mr. Wickersham had sketch.
ed the ways by which States may reg
ulate business of foreign corporations
within their boundaries and had advo-
Gated that the license of any foreign
corporation be vacated if SO per cent
of It's stock was owned by any COM
pany, domestic or foreign, or if that
amount became later so owned.
Taking up the definition of inter
state commerce, though Mr.. Wicker
sham said it would be rash at this
time 70 suggest definition of what
it is" ne quoted Justice Harlan, of the
United States Supreme Court, that it
is mot a technical legal conception,
but a practical one"
This brought the Attorney General
to his main declaration that Congress
should organize corporations to carry
on interstate business, because of the
general legal completely of regulating
that trafic.
"Of course, many will object to the
centralizing tendency of a national
law authorizing the formation of cor
porations to carry on interstate busl-
ness" concluded Mr.. Wickersham,
but such a law seems to me to be
the inevitable result of economic con-
ditions"
Mr.. Wickersham said this was a
logical following of the recently
passed tariff tax on corporations.
Thought in a national sense the ad-
dress was chiefly notable for the rec
ommendation of national incorpora-
tions, its effort to show the separate
States how they may control the bust
ness of foreign corporations in their
limits was an important feature.
The Attorney General began with
what he declared to be, quoting an
argument once made by Daniel Web
ster, the fallacy of the proposition
that a corporation can have no exis-
tence beyond the limits where it is
organized" Following this conclus-
ion, he took up the question of deter
mining the value of capital consider.
able in single States, quoting the Su.
preme Court of the United States that
'it was lawful to include, not merely
the tangible value of the property,
but that proportion of the intangible
property which the value of the tangi-
BILE property in one State bore to the
aggregate of the tangible property in
all the States" in which the corpora
ton did business.
Dealing with the citizenship and
standing of corporations, Mr.. Wick
ersham quoted decisions that they
were not citizens in the meaning OF
the Federal Constitution requirement
that citizens of each State should be
entitled to all the privileges and I'm
munities of citizens in the several
states;' that the power of State to
prevent a foreign corporation from
TO do business is but cor
relative of its authority to prevent
such corporation from coming into the
State; that the State, in passing on
these questions, might take cogniz-
ance of acts done elsewhere.