The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1910-01-04
TAFT'S MESSAGE
TO CONGRESS- TO
Be OF INTEREST
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE WILL
DWELL ON PRESERVING THE
NATURAL RESOURCES.
He van Also Advocate Legislation
Which viii Permit National Fran.
ehises to Corporations Which De-
pend on interstate Business.

Washington, Jan. 3-Two special
messages from President Taft win
serve to enliyen the first week of the
congressional session after the holi-
day vacation. The first of these will
/ be sent to congress Immediately after
1 that body reconyenes tomorrow, and
the other on the day following. Con
> seryation of natural resources and tie
! antitrust law are the subjects of the
presidents literary efforts. but the
latter topic naturally excites great
/ est interest amcng the congressman
who are pouring into Washington to-
day, eager to rest after the arduous
| toll of the holidays.
It is confidently expected that one
proposition will stick out of the pres
| idential message like sore finger.
| This will be an argument by the pres
ident that the necessity does not ex-
ist for changing .the Sherman anti
trust act, dealing with combinations
in restraint of.trade,
! The president had held that this
law should be so amended as TO limit
its application to such combinations
of industry and capital as were detri-
mental to full and complete competi-
ton. Had he held that view Mr..
/ Taft doubtless would recommend that
the law should be changed so as to
make exceptions Of combinations not
+ within, tbat o1a q M tinp
The Combinations.
| Like Mr.. Roosevelt, the president
had been impressed with the view
that many combinations, while effect
ed through the amalgamation of com
! peting concerns, had been conducive
4 to public good and did not constitute
unreasonable or detrimental combina-
tions, which the Ian had sought to
/ reach.
But Mr.. Taft, according to the UNI
| derstanding obtained by members Of
I his cabinet, and other confidants, has
undergone a change of mind. To At
torney General Wickersham is given
the credit of having convinced him
that the occasion did not exist for
changing the anti law, so as to
! exempt from prosecution combinations
which, while they had suppressed com
| petition to the extent of obtaining con-
troll Of competing concerns, did not
practice bulldozing methods on other
competitors or on their customers.
The attorney general, in long opin-
| ion, reviewed all the antitrust cases
that had come before the United
States supreme court, about fifteen in
number, and showed that the court
Invariably had ignored what it re-
: garded as picayunish contentious ae
/ to limitations of the law and had CON
strued the law in its broad sense rs
applying to combinations of capital
that suppressed competition by big
stick methods solely to swell its pr
fits.
Underwent Change.
II was pointed out that the court in
effect had rejected the idea that where
two or more competing concerns en-
gagged in interstate commerce were
J combined. but which did not use the
/ Combination iOr tDe purpose CT putting
up prices or stamping out other COM
petitors or those who declined to pat-
ronize the combination exclusiy ely
! there was a violation CT the Sherman
act.
Convinced by the attorney general
that this was the supreme courts at
titude, the president is understood to
have undergone a change of opinion
as to the necessity Of recommending
that the antitrust act be amerded
Furthermore, there is reason to be
lieve that he DIES. not share the y.eas
that rules for the determination of
the differences between a good trust
an a bad trust, with the idea Of ex
empdng the good trust from the op
erations of the antitrust law, can be
specifically laid down in law or ap-
piled properly by any individual in
authority. This was an additional
/ reason which helped him to reach the
view that amendation of the Sherman
law was not only unnecessary but un-
wise.