Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-05
A socIAL1sT1c CONVERT


~ AMUEL UNTERMEYER, a noted
New York lawyer, is back from a
NJ trip abroad with some suggestions
of universal interest because their APP
plication would have to do with every
home in the land. They contemplate
nothing less than the regulation by the
Government of commodity prices. Com
ing from such a conservative source
the ideas can be denominated as moth
ing short of startling, showing as they
do a we'll defined Socialistic trend
Mr.. Untermeyer got his notions in
Germany, where state Socialism mot
to be confounded with democratic So
cialism) is more cs an accepted and
established thing than in the United
States. The German government has
gone far into the regulation of industry
as an offset to the agitations of the
real Socialists whose influence is very
powerful Concerns in Germany that
approach the trust character are not
left to run things their own way.
For example, the potash deposits
were being exploited in a manner that
was not popular. The reichstag stepped
in and passed a law (partly in the in
terest of conservation creating court
to regulate output and fix prices every
two years. In the past the government
has acted somewhat similarly with the
coal and iron producers. Fresh from
study of the results Mr.. Untermeyer
comes with suggestions going far be-
vond MIR. Taft, Col. Roosevelt or Mr..
Bryan.
Mr.. Untermeyer thinks that if the
criminal law had been used fifteen or
twenty years ago the formation OF
trusts might have been frustrated. To
dissolve them now he says is simply
chimerical. But he would not leave
them alone. They carry three great
dangers, in his opinion. They can en-
hance prices, stif1e competition by skull
duggery, and stifle invention or the use
of new inventions. He suggests four
measures, which amount to one line of
policy. After passing Mr.. Taft's fed
eral incorporation act he would employ
all the resources of the government to
make this act practically effective. As
he puts it:
Then, having created a refuge for
these corporations let us enforce the
civil and criminal provisions of the
Sherman law until every trust mas
been forced to subject itself to con-
troll. and allow no other corpora
tions engaged in Interstate business
to operate under state charters II
thew come within the regulations OF
congress and can be thus controlled,
as most of them can be.
This commission should have power
to investigate and direct criminal pros
ecution of persons guilty of unfair tac-
tics and civil suits to forfeit charters
of offending corporations. Then he
would have "a commission to fix maxi
mum prices at which commodities may
be sold, based upon production COSTS
with powers similar to those of the in
terstate commerce commission"
Mr.. Untermeyer's plan so far tran
scends any previous serious proposal
from a conservative source that we
NAV we'll ask what we are coming to.
Where would he draw the line? Should
local governments regulate the Joboer
and retailer--for they are frequently
accused of a large part of the cause OF
high prices? And if so far, should the
government step in and fix price for
the most important of all commoulties
labor?
If the plan carries logically to that
extreme. how far would its operation
be from Socialism, pure and simple?
It is not probable that Untermeyer
keen mind has overlooked the logic
That means that his proposal is I'M
,,,onselv significant as showing the
trend of conservative thought toward
the Socialistic philosophy.