The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-10-29
BY Ernest G. Walker.
Mail Special to the Advertiser)

NMall Speclal 10 the AuNertlseT)
WASHINGTON, October l2.-Attor.
ney-General Wickersham facetiously
tells his visitors these days that he is
very busy studying law. 1t is literally
true. The tasks the President has put
upon him in framing bills for the con
sideration of congress has necessitated
very close scrutiny of existing
statutes, some of them forgotten
statutes. The Encouragement must
have survey of the whole field of
corporation law, lest alert lawyers in
senate and house, or in the cabinet trip
him up,
just now he is framing an incorpora.
ton law for companies doing interstate
business. 1t embodies an idea he has
long favored. He thinks it would be
better for the corporations to have one
boss-the federal government-than as
many bosses rs states in which these
corporations happen to be operating.
The President believes, too, in that idea
and Mr.. Wickersham is striving to have
a satisfactory bill ready for submission
to the cabinet by the time the Presi.
dent returns.
There has been discussion off and on
about federal incorporation law. But
the lawyers of the country have never
given it much study. The attorney.
general said the other day that there
had been little development of ideas
about such an incorporation law since
1900 and 1901, when the industrial com.
mission, appointed by President Nc
Kinley, was conducting its delibera-
tions.
Has Been Recommended.
That commission recommended the
enactment of federal incorporation
law, if it should be found that the
existing laws did not suffice for the
control of corporations and suggested
that State corporations, doing an inter.
state business, could be taxed, so that
they would find it preferable to take
out federal charters. The commission
conducted exhaustive hearings on the
subject and two good lawyers, b. f.
Stimson, of Boston, and the late Ernest
w. Huffcut, dean of Cornell University,
compiled a vast deal Of legal informa.
ton and wrote comprehensively about
the constitutional and other questions
involved.
The Encouragement has been taking
the material which these women and
the commission by whom they were en-
ployed gathered as the basis for his
new incorporation bill He will put
into the bill number of features,
other than provisions for taking out
federal charters. Probably, the regula-
ton of issues of stocks and bonds,
which the President favors, will be one
of these. AS the work ON this bill is
pretty well advanced, it may be one
of the first measures to be pressed be-
fore congress this winter. President
Taft will have the say about that and
much may depend upon the judgment
of the lawyer members of the cabinet
as to the draft of the measure which
the attorney general submits.
Amend Interstate Commerce.
He has also been studying the draft
of another important bill, that for the
amendment of the interstate commerce
law. He has to get the ideas he and
his associates have developed on that
/ subject well down upon paper before
the President returns That is to be
one of the important subjects of legis.
| lation and it may be that and the
| federal charter law will be about all
of his program that the President can
get enacted into law at the coming
session of congress.
OF course the encouragement has
number of government lawyers ut
work with him. They are looking up
cases for him, digging out decisions and
gathering such material as he finds
| hos AZ nf
law involved. There is vast amount
of this preliminary work, in connection
with the drafting of a congressional
bill, which must be utilized by the
author and which will be wanted by
the President and his cabinet as they
discuss the proposed measures and
which will be wanted by senators and
members of the house as they take up
their part of the responsibility for en-
acting the bills into law.
Mr.. Wickersham has been much in
conference with the commission, which
the President designated some months
ago, with regard TO the interstate com
merce amendments, whereas with the
incorporation law, he is rather going it
alone.
Came as Unknown.
When he came into President Taft Is
cabinet there was hardly man in that
body of advisers less known to the
country than Attorney General Wicker
sham. In the seven months and more
that Taft has been President, there
probably has been no man of the cabi
net who has impressed himself more
favorably upon Washington. He came
here as a New York lawyer, of large
corporation practise, much of it Office
practise that gave him no reputation
with the outside world. He brought
to Washington the exclusive ideas Of (
New York lawyer about the newspaper
and the right Of the public to know
what is being done by public officials
Those who were admitted TO his pres
enee found him very bright and
af'able man, but il was not easy fol-
newspaper correspondents and many
Others to reach his inner Office.
Has Learned Much.
However, in the meantime Mr., Wick
| .. 81. h. .H IA.