The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1910-04-21

ed problem of preventing the forma-
ton and existence of monopoly. He
took occasion to express himself
plainly on such well-known octopi as
the oil trust and the beef trust and
the tobacco trust. In his conclusion
he declared:
/ Has the Anglo-saxon fought the
battle of the centuries for civil and
political liberty only to sit supinely
down and witness the formation of
an Industrial oligarchy under the
domination of which all men must
pay tribute helplessly to g%reed?"
Concerning the remedy, Congress-
man Martin said:
Our statutes have been hereto-
fore entirely punitive in their char
acter. We want remedial legislation
that will prevent monopoly before it
is formed. No corporation which is
organized or which operates in vio-
lation of the federal antitrust laws
should be permitted to do business
in interstate commerce at all. All
great corporations, because these
are the only possibly offenders,
should be required to show affirma-
lively to the department of commerce
and labor the lawful character of
their organization and the lawful
nature of their business methods he
fore receiving permission or license
to enter the field of interstate Dusi-
ness. A subsequent violation of the
statutes should forfeit all rights to
~, ~D~ 1 To- s,@ -
President Roosevelt, it will be re-
membered, reached the conclusion
that the Sherman antitrust law, not
withstanding its good purposes, was
a failure. 1t prohibits the formation
of monopoly, to be true, but there
must be an offense before this law
can be called upon. BY that time the
monopoly has acquired vested inter-
ests, or what it attempts to have rec
ognized as vested interests, and the
courts naturally hesitate to order
what appears to be a destruction of
property. Further, their very strength
prolongs resistance against enforce
ment of the law to the last minute.
The ten years it has taken to bring
the oil trust to bay is an illustration.
Congressman Martin would have the
government provide that corporations
must cur the governments APP
prevail before undertaking business
and would provide that a subsequent
violation should forfeit all rights to
engage in interstate commerce. The
latter provision, like the Sherman
law, would be punitive, and its en-
forcement would require some sucn
procedure as the present statute. The
value Of such a law would depend
largely upon whether the govern
ment could succeed in putting the
burden of proof on the corporation
to show at any time that it is COM
plying with the law. That would be
presuming the guilt of the corpora
ton and, as corporations are citizens
in the eyes of the courts, that would
appear to transgress one of the first
principles of Anglo-Saxon j%urisprud-
ence.
The magnitude of the task that
confronts any law that attempts to
keep the public acquainted with the
doinss of corporations is suggested
by the following from a dispatch
sent out from New York after Gov.
Hughes asked for a thorough legis-
lative investigation of the charges of
corruption at the state capitol:
zone corporation lawyer, who has
retired from practice, said that from
now on until the investigation gets
under way there will be more old nc
count books burned than ever before
in the history of the city, and thous-
ands of old files ransacked for in
eliminating letters which will go the
same way as the books. He predicted
that the investigation would disclose
a new rule among COMPREHENSIVE
is, that books of record more than
three years old are not now kept. He
predicted that stubs of cneck-books
and Cancelled vouchers would not be
kept even that long, probably not
more than for a year back"
What chance would a federal law
have of keeping up with the activi-
ties of corporations that are so quick
to cover their tracks? We do not
ask the question in despair, necessar-
lily. 1t Is simply a question that must
be answered sooner or later.
In this connection it will be of in
terest to refer to a bill introduced in
the Canadian parliment by Mckenzie
minictor of ,obor u,b;ob