Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-23
Clamoring for Modification.

C1a1uOT1uR LOT MOQ1uCaC1Ou.
With striking unanimity. however.
which by some might be taken as admis-
sion of its present restraining effect, all
Of the trust lawyers are clamoring for a
modification of the decentralization as
they understand it being to make it less
stringent.
In addition to threatening number of
existing trusts, the Standard Oil decision
is admitted to be a menace to three gi-
gantic trusts in process of organization
and nearing completion at the very mo-
ment of the delivery of the opinion. These
are the amalgamation under one control
of all the copper mines and selling agen-
cies of the country; of all the electrical
interests, in their vast ramificationS and
a merger of the telephone and telegraph
lines.
It is said by congressman that naturally
a modification of the Sherman law in &C
lawyers would permit this grand and
good work to proceed unmolested. The
pressure which can be brought to bear
upon Congress from the people concerned
In these proposed trusts is recognized to
be sufficient of itself to attract the at
tention of Congress. 1t will be augment
ed by pressure from every existing trust.
Reasonable Combinations"
1t is expected that these people will
fall back upon the declarations of presi-
dents and the republican party platforms
in the time Of Mckinley, Roosevelt and
including Taft, that reasonable combina-
lions Of capital and industry or of labor
shall not be molested. They will insist
that II the Sherman law is construed to
affect such combinations, it must be modi-
fed.
what is a reasonable combination,
and after effected how can the combina-
ton be halted short of becoming monop-
oly?" will be the question propounded to
Congress.
According to some Of the congressman
what will the representatives of the peo-
pie be doing all this time to safeguard
the Sherman law, and how do they re-
gard that law? What will this tremen-
dous radical reform sentiment, which has
taken root in the party Of progress and
have to say upon the proposed weaken
Ing of the Sherman law?
What the Law Has Accomplished.
In congressional circles it is said that
attention will be called to what has been
done already by the Sherman law as
argument against it's emasculation The
opinions on this point of a number of
progressive congressman might be sum-
married in quotation marks as follows:
''In the west the people find that the
Sherman act has worked to their satisfac-
ton in a number of cases. 1t has sue
cessfully invoked against the Northern
Securities merger, plan which If allow
ed to be carried out would have combined
under the control of one board of direc-
tors sitting around a table all the trans
portation facilities from the Missouri
river to the Canadian line and from Chi
ocyn To hn 40 OF 1yol lo
injustice to the shipper and traveller
ut Is now being invoked to break up
the powder trust, which absolutely con-
trolls the sale of explosives in this coun-
try. which would menace the government
in time of war and which had the effront-
cry at one time to take in a foreign
agreement which would have prevented
this government buying powder anywhere
abroad in time of war, except at trust
prices.
1T is being invoked against the tobacco
trust, Of whose power and ruthlessness
every little tobacconist and cigar dealer
in the land is aware.
at is being invoked against an al
legged combination of Pacific coast trunk
lines south of the Missouri river.
''It was successfully used against the
Transmissouri Freight Association, q
combination of railroads formed to main
tain, as alleged. unreasonable rates and
determinations against shippers and pro-
ducers.
ut was invoked successfully against the
Joint Traffic Association, a combination
of thirty-one railroads between Chicago
and the Atlantic coast to control rates.
1T was successfully invoked against the
Addystone Pipe Company, combination
Of cast-iron pipe producers, to keep up
prices.
1T broke up the elevator trust COM
pletely; 1t put out of business the retail
druggists trust; it smashed the Nome
Retail Grocers' Association; 1t broke up
the paper trust in Wisconsin, Minnesota
and Michigan: it dissolved the Hawaiian
beef and lumber trust, that combination
quitting upon the mere filing Of the suit
and not waiting to be pushed out.
ut was invoked in sixteen cases during
the Roosevelt administration, many of
which are still in litigation, with sound
presidents in favor of the government in
prior decisions of the United States Su-
preme Court.
'In fact. pretty good old law, after
all, for the plain people"
Now, that is the way the progressive
element in Congress talks about the Sher-
man law. 1t Is easy to contemplate that
this faction will have to be pretty vigor-
ously reasoned with before it lends it's
consent to notifications of the Sherman
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