Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-04-12


 It must be apparent to the administration at Washington that this whole incident of the Sher man law cases is having a most detrimental eff feet upon all the commercial and financial in terests of the United States. If the government were business institution controlled by busi- ness common sense, its efforts would long ago have been applied to devising method of relief by amendment of the Sherman antitrust act, which would permit legitimate business to pro ceed with its ordinary energy and enterprise, eliminating from combinations only those perni- cious practices which could be easily defined and completely prescribed.
 The Sherman law, if it is interpreted by the supreme court as it has been by the lower courts, prohibits all restraint of trade; and every con- sodation of interests existing at this time must go into dissolution, no matter whether it has re- sorted to unlawful methods or not; no matter whether it's operations have so increased the cheapness and the high quality of its products that millions of consumers are materially and continuously benefited thereby, while the pro ducers of the raw material are given an active and lucrative market entirely lacking before.
 Every combination, big and little, must, in case of such decision, be reorganized. The wheels must stop while this is being done and the dis
 
 It cannot for moment be supposed that Taft vaciating as he has shown himself thus far in judgment and execution, can wish for such con- summation of business distress He cannot req sonably be supposed to have changed his mind in so short time as since January 7th, when in his message he said:
 The purpose of the antitrust law was not to interfere with a great volume of capital, which, +oJ the cost of production and made its profit there by and took no advantage of its size by meth ods akin to duress to stife competition with it''
 Roosevelt himself fiery and impetuous leader of the trust smashers, declared in two messages that the Sherman law must be amended or it would if enforced, stop all the business of the country.
 The desire of the better part of the anti-cor- poratonists is only for the abolition of injurious restraint of trade, and MT. Taft, in the message referred to- points out exactly where the law should operate. He says the great corporations disclose purpose to restrain trade and violate the antitrust act when they attempt by sale of their goods temporarily at unduly low prices to drive out of business their competitors.
 The New York Herald, in an important article
  or the individual could by the closer personal supervision of business, successfully compete with even the greatest corporation but for the fact that the latter doing business over wider area, can while maintaining prices in the great CT part of its territory, afford to temporarily lower prices in the particular locality where the small competitor is at work, and keep this up un- til the latter is compelled to sell out or go to ruin. It says:
 ''As the great wrong wrought by railways was the discrimination between the carriers and To- calities-the root of all transportation evils has been prohibited by law so let there be law to prevent this discrimination by industrial cor poratons between individual dealers and ocali- ties. Make it imperative to charge uniform price to all dealers and all localities differ entials representing merely the charges of trans portation-and the existing antitrust act can be repealed tomorrow.'
 Ten good business men with one good legisla- tive lawyer could in week frame a substitute for the Sherman law and include all the good in- tended to be done and eliminate all of the absurd and dangerous provisions
 Why then will the administration persist in this attitude of inaction, waiting and apparently hoping for the worst?
 Why not assume the business attitude and do what good business men would do?
 Amend the Sherman antitrust act, as Taft re- peatedly promised in his early presidential speeches would be done.
 The very declaration of such an intention would start business out of its lethargy
 And the beginning of earnest action in this direction would inaugurate a rush of renewed itu n m