The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-10-20

Slou, passed an ACT CT0dLluS COAA-
mission to investigate the subject OF
| providing a method for compensating
| employees of interstate carriers for in
juries received in the service, and to
| report plan, or bill, on the subject.
If such scheme can be worked out
it will obviate the necessity of resort
| ing to the courts and will furnish a
speedy and inexpensive way of secur-
| ing compensation.
Government Employees.
The Federal Government cannot be
| sued without its consent, and hence
| those who are injured, or lose their
| lives, in the government service have
| no remedy, as in cases outside of the
public service. To afford limited and
| partial relief in such cases Congress
passed the act of May 80, 1908, giving
| to government employees, in case they
| are injured in the service, and to
| their families in case the injury results
| in death, limited compensation, pay
| able without suit or litigation. The
| law, in view of the fact that the gov
eminent cannot be sued, is undoubted-
ly just and necessary, for it is intoler-
| able that the government employees
should be without any relief. But the
law is fairly open to the criticism that
the compensation given is too scant,
as it is practically limited to one years
salary of the employee injured, even
where death is the result of the in
gress will, in the near future, remedy
this defect and allow more adequate
and just compensation. In 1882 Con-
To- oil Gil i1n,, 1sv,o
for the benefit of the life-saving SER
vice. The limit under this law cannot
exceed two years salary of the en-
ploye injured in the service.
Miners.
For the protection Of laborers and
workmen engaged in mining, Congress,
at its last session, passed the act of
May 16, 1910, establishing Bureau of
Mines in the Department of the In
terror. This bureau is especially
charged with the duty of Investigate
ing Che methods and appliances of
mining, with view of ascertaining
and prescribing the best methods and
the best appliances conducive to the
health, safety and welfare of the min
ers. The bureau is also charged with
the duty of ascertaining the causes of
mine explosions, and of prescribing
the best means of preventing the same.
This legislation will prove of great
value to those who are engaged in
the hazardous work of coal and iron
mining, and for that matter to all
other classes Of miners.
Antitrust Law.
While public service corporations
| such as railroads, can be regulated
and controlled by legislation even to
the extent of prescribing rates, that
| is not the case with other corpora
tons. AS to these, in the matter OF
rates, relief must come by keeping the
| door of competition open. Through
consolidation and absorption con.
siderable number of great Industrial
corporations, with immense capital at
their command, and aiming at mo-
nOpOly in trades and manufacturing
were organized and put into opera.
ton during the eighties, and before
1t became evident that few great
corporations aimed at nothing less
than to monopolize and entirely con.
troll the trade in their respective lines
This was notably the case with the so.
called sugar trust, and the Standard
Oil trust; and these cases, though the
greatest, were nevertheless typical of
many others. The public; as soon as
they felt and realized the effect of
these great combinations, looked about
for relief. And it was found that the
common law was insufficient, that
state legislation was too limited and
incomplete, and that full and compre-
| hensive legislative relief could only
come through Congress. Congress was
appealed to and the appeal resulted in
the great antitrust act of 1890, passed
| by a Republican Congress during Har-
| risOn's administration. This law has
oftentimes been called the Sherman
| Act, but this is mistake. The bill he
| introduced did not pass, but a substi-
tute therefor, reported by the Judi
ciary Committee of the Senate, was
the bill that passed and became the
| law. Senator Edmunds was undoubt-
eddy the author and father of this SUBJ
stitute. The law was drawn with great
| skill and has been found to be more
far-reaching, more searching, and more
effective than was at first supposed to
| be the case, and it has stood the test
and successfully run the gauntlet of
the courts. 1t prohibits all monopolies
and all combinations in restraint of
| interstate trade and commerce, and
| while it cannot on constitutional
grounds, technically reach corpora
tions engaged exclusively in manufac-
| turing, yet inasmuch as all great man
| ufacturing concerns are also engaged
| in vending their products throughout
| the country and thus engaged in in
| terstate trade and commerce, they can
undoubtedly be reached, restrained
and prosecuted under this law. The
prohibitions of the act are broad and
of the most comprehensive character.
1t makes no distinction between good
| and bad trusts, as some in these later
days would have us do. All combina-
lions in restraint of trade and all mo-
nopolies in trade, however fatherly the
| purpose may have been, are absolutely
prohibited and the courts have right.
| fully declined to consider whether a
trust is reasonable or unreasonable.
The law makes them all unreasonable.
| Not only is the law drastic in it's pro-
| hibitions but it gives ample remedies
| for violations of the same. Four class
es of remedies are provided: Cd by
criminal prosecution; (2) by injunc-
tion 60 by seizure and confiscation
of trust-made goods; and (4) by civil
action for triple damages in behalf of
any party injured. All these remedies
have been invoked and successfully
sustained by the courts. The enforce
ment of the law has been aided and