East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-01-07

reasonable, it may forbid the increase
or fix maximum beyond which the
road may not go. If the commission
has not completed the investigation
when the new rate becomes effective,
the investigation may be continued
az under the present law.
The message recommends definite
ly that shippers be given the right
to select routes over which their
shipments are to be handled. 1t IL
proposed that after passage of the
suggested bill, no railroad shall be
permitted to acquire any interest OF
any kind, directly or indirectly, in the
capital stock or purchase or lease
any railroad Nor any other corpora
ton which competes with it, with
the proviso that the law shall not
operate to prevent any corporation,
which, at the date of the passage Of
the act, owns half Of the entire stock
of company. from securing the rest
of it, nor prohibit any railroad COM
pany which is operating railroads
under lease at the time of the pass
age of the act from acquiring a re-
visionary ownership of such roads.
The message recommends the en-
actment Of a law prohibiting the
watering Of stock by requiring ~,
stock to be sold at par, or at a value
determined by the commission, for
money, or If anything else is tend
cred, or il services are paid in return
for stock. it must be valued by the
commission.
In addition, the commission is to
supervise the issues of all stocks and
bonds. The president also recon-
mends the passage by the senate of
the Each bills passed a few weeks ago
by the house, giving the interstate
commerce commission power to stand
ardize the safety appliances of all
railroads.
The president says that Attorney
General Wickersham has prepared a
bill, embody.ng all of these ideas.
which is now ready for congress.
Antitrust Law o. X
In discussing the antitrust law the
president says that it needs no
/ amendment
THE object of the law is to sup
press the abuses of business and not
TO interfere with greater volume of
capital, which concentrated under
one organization, has reduced the
costs of production and made its prof
its thereby, and took no advantage
of its size to stife competition. 1
conceive that nothing could happen
more destructive to the prosperity of
! this country than the loss of that
great economy in production which
| has been, and will be, effected in all
manufacturing lines by the employ
! ment of large capital under one man.
agement."
| After declaring that the decisions
of the supreme court upheld the law,
/ the president says:
! THE value of the statute. which is
rendered more and more certain by a
long line of decisions by the supreme
court of the United States, furnishes
strong reasons for leaving the act as
| it is"
He declares that it is the duty of the
department of justice, under the pres
ent law, to investigate all trusts. and
says
But such an investigation, and
possible prosecution of corporations
whose prosperity affects the comfort
not only of the stock holders but of
millions of wage earners and en-
ployes' and associated tradesmen.
must necessarily tend to disturb con-
fidence in the business community,
and to dry up the now flowing sources
of capital from its places of hoard
ing, and produce a halt in our pros
perity that will cause suffering and
strained circumstances among the in
noeent for the faults of the guilty
few"
Would Regulate Corporations.
He says that he desires to procure
a means of bringing corporations into
the pale of the law. and to prevent
any business disasters. He offers the
proposition of the federal charter as
the means of gaining this purpose,
saying:
"In dealing, therefore. with men
who have used methods condemned
by statute. for the purpose of main
tanning profitable business. as may
well facilitate change by them in the
method of doing business. and enable
them to bring it back into the zone
of lawfulness without losing to the
country the economy of management
by which in our domestic trade the
cost OF production has been material
~ lessened and in competition with
foreign manufacturers our trade has
greatly increased Through all our
consideration of this grave question,
moreover. We must insist that the
suppression of competition. the con-
trolling OF prices and monopoly. or
any attempts to monopolize in inter-
state commerce and business, are not
only unlawful, but contrary to the
public good and they must be re-
strained and punished until ended"
Therefore the president recon-
mends the enactment of a law for the
formation of corporations engaged in
interstate trade under n federal IL
cense, protecting them from undue
interference by state, and providing
for the issue of stock only for the paid
in value in cash or property whose
value has been ascertained by the fed
eral authorities.
"The law should subject real and
personal property only of such cor
porations to the same taxation as is
imposed by the states within which
II NAV no Situated and ,,pop ntbor