The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-28
By Ernest G.. Walker.
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WASHINGTON, October 12.-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
a very close scrutiny of existing
statutes, some of them forgotten
statutes. The attorney general must
| have survey of the whole field of
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 as states in which these
corporations happen to be operating.
The President believes, too, in that idea
/ and Mr.. Wiekersham is striving to have
! satisfactory bin ready for submission
! to the cabinet by the time the Presi-
| dent returns.
There has been discussion off and on
about a 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 Ne
Kinley, was conducting it's delibera-
tons.
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. T.
Stimson, of Boston, and the late Ernest
". Huffcut, dean of Cornell University.
compiled vast deal of legal informa-
ton and wrote comprehensively about
the constitutional and other questions
involved
The attorney-genera 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 win put
into the bill a 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 viii have the saw 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
a number Of government lawyers at
work with him. They are looking up
cases for him, digging out decisions and