New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-06-15
THE CORPORATE QUESTION
Limitation of Profits Urged by
Judge Grosscup.
BASED ON FAIR VALUATION

Dlsagrees with President Taft
and Regulation by Interstate
Commission.
Fhladeiphia- June "Democracy-Its
Last Phase" was the subject of an address
! by Judge Peter s. Grosseup, of Chicago,
! before the Academy of Law tonight.
Judge Grosscup said in part:
For nearly twenty years now public opin-
ioil mas been getting itself in readiness 20
and industrial worlds that modern condi-
lions nave brought into being Public opin-
ION is stun engaged in getting itself ready
y minority OF our people. but large and
! resourceful minority want nothing done.
nat minority can be counted,on at every
1 9rh TO help the majority defeat itself
ne majority believe that something must
De done- But upon what that something
should be the majority do not agree
some still believe that combinations in
me rallroad and industrial world could
/ nave been originally prevented and might
/ even now be destroyed. That belief was
voiced in the Sherman act when IL was
! first passed. and is more or less renewed
every time the Sherman act Is applied to
concrete cases But under the very shadow
! combinations that we now have have
] grown up.
Some persons would have the size of
corporate enterprises limited, the speaker
said. but no one had yet defined the limit.
He went OF:
Some think the great corpora tons of the
country can be made by law TO compete.
To compete with whom-when that particu-
/ lar corporation already has a monopoly of
the field? And some believe that, laying
aside as impossible all these suggestions
the road TO accomplish what the majority
2 .15eE,
/ fauon of rates, so far the railways are
concerned, through the Interstate Com
meTce Commission, as also the amount and
character of securities that railroads
should be allowed to issue.
President Taft's View.
To this view President Taft seems to be
sincerely committed But thus far Presi-
dent Taft and those who stand with him
have not been able to get in any effective
form what they seem 10 want III the way
of the regulation of securities to be issued :;
and my own experience with rate matters
makes doubt whether, in the absence
Of a fair valuation OF railroad properties.
to be used as a yardStick in determining
the reasona bleness of rates. any regula-
ton OF rates by a governmental board
would result in justice either to the rail-
roads or TO the public.
The vice Of the minority. who want moth
/ ing done. is that they do not look beyond
their own feet and the circle of interests
| in which their feet are imprisoned. The
vision Of this interested minority falls
/ short Of seeing that the whole movement
of mankind to-day is toward a truer de-
mocracy: a democracy in Egypt for in
/ stance. that will not feel itself fully at
tanned while a few foreigners are kept in
snG the Egyptian people kept out; g de-
n,ccracy IN England that viii not feel 1t
self fully attained by the mere parucfpa-
ton Of all classes of Englishmen in the
/ elective franchise. so long as the English
man who ulls the soil Is practically eX-
cluded from ever owning the soil he tlls;
a democracy that. in America. is rapidly
n hal
conditions. competition in some fields of
industry must be eliminated and monopo
lies must exist the class Of property re-
sultlng shall not. merely by reason of its
eng a monopoly. burden the people with
excessive prices, nor, by reason of its being
corporate in form. constitute a domain
that the people a. large, seeking owner
shin. cannot safely enter.
And where MI Taft's plan fails is that.
should il accomplish all that its friends
hope il will accomplish, nothing final in its
nature will even then have been accom-
plished-the old war between shippers and
the railroads will still be on: the old crowd.
by the manipulation of corporate securi-
( ties. VIII be piling up stupendous indi-
vidual fortunes; the old distrust of the cor
porate domain a field of popular own
ershp will continue; the old ascending
scale of prices will not have vanished.
One Ultimate Remedy.
Is II not time that our American major
+ itY who wish something done should agree
Upon policy hat viii accomplish what II
one ultimate remedy, and that is TO deal
with the railroads that are natural monop-
olies and the great industrial combinations
that have made themselves monopolies
upon the basis Of their being in law just
what they are in fact. monopolies that
modern conditions have made necessary,
and then putting upon them a valuation
that takes into consideration everything
/ through which they have gone. as well as
what thew now possess allow rates and
prices that will secure a fair return on
such valuation, and no more. Is that I'M
American?
Judge Grosscup asserted that this plan
would preserve to the owners the Amerl-
can principle that owners Of property have
right to a fair return upon their invest
ment: it would also preserve to the owners
the American principle that IL is better,
subject to necessary regulation against IN
Just discrimination. that the owners shouid
have the management OF their own enter
prises; and it would preserve the Amer /
can principle that other things being equal.
pirate ownership and management is IN
nniteiv more advantageous to the public
than public mana cement" He continued:
True. a limitation upon profits is in the
nature of innovation. but actual moncpo-
lies Ike those. recognized as laWfW mo
nOroIies would themselves be an lnnoNatich
more profound in their consequences t,1atl
ANYTHING American that has occurred siiice
/ SlaveY,v was suppressed-an innovation llat
rhe nJbIic cannot safely accept upon any
condition other than that the returns on
monopoly to its owners snail not pc AZ
! Injustice To the people And. what Is OF
efr7si consequence. that status OF our
American railways and great industrial
! ,.ouhinations thus definitely settled, a.
properties into which the people Hlole4
might safely go for investment. new
property field would he opened TO the
people 81 large that would eNehiuali3
Mac he proDcrtv of the country, corporate
as well IS incorporate. side by side with
the elective franchise-a possession open
TO III alike
/ SHERMAN CANNOT BE HERE
,---,, D- yT;oo pro-ident from