Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-01-12

work. But such an investigation and
possible prosecution of corporations
whose prosperity or destruction affects
the comfort not only Of stockholders but
millions of wage earners, employees, and
associated tradesmen must necessarily
tend to disturb the confidence Of the
business community, to dry up the now
flowing sources of capital from it's places
of boarding, and produce q halt in our
present prosperity that will cause SUI
ferfng and strained circumstances among
the innocent many for the faults OF the
guilty few. The question which l wish
In this message to bring clearly to the
consideration and decision of the con-
gress whether to avoid business danger
something cannot be done by which
these business combinations may be Of
fered means, without great financial
disturbance, of changing the character,
organization and extent of their business
into one within the lines of the law I'M
der federal control and supervision, Sc
curing compliance with the antitrust
statutes
For Government Control.
Generally, in the Industrial combina-
| lions called trusts, the principal bust
ness is the sale of goods in many stateS
and in foreign markets; in other words,
the interstate and foreign business far
| exceeds the business done in any one
state. This fact will justify the fed
eral government in granting a federal
charter to such combination to make
and sell in interstate and foreign COM
merce the products of useful manufac-
| ture under such limitations as will Sc
cure a compliance with the antitrust
law. It is possible SO to frame statute
that while it offers protection to fed
eral company against harmful, vexatious
and unnecessary invasion by the states,
| it shall subject it to reasonable taxation
| and control by the states, with respect to
| it's purely local business.
Many people conducting great bust
| nesses have cherished a hope and a be-
| lief that in some way or other a line
may be drawn between good trusts" and
| bad trusts" and that it is possible by
amendment to the antitrust law to make
distinction under which good combina-
| tons may be permitted to organize, sup
press competition, control prices, and do
| it all legally if only they do not abuse
! the power by taking too great profit out
OF the business. They point with force to
certain notorious trusts as having grown
into power through criminal methods by
! the use of illegal rebates and plain cheat
| ing, and by various acts utterly ViOlative
| of business honesty or morality, and urge
the establishment of some legal line of
separation by which 'criminal trusts
OF this kind can be punished, and they,
on the other hand, be permitted under
the law to carry on their business. Now,
| the public, and especially the business
public, ought to rid themselves of the
idea that SUCH distinction is practic-
able or can be introduced into the stat
| ute.
Certainly under the present-anti-trust
! law no such distinction exists. It has
been proposed however, that the word
! reasonable" should be made a part of
| the statute, and then it should be left to
| the court to say what is a reasonable
restraint of trade, what is a reasonable
suppression of competition, what is rea-
sonable monopoly. venture to think that
this is to put into the hands of the
| court power impossible to exercise on
any consistent principle which will in
sure the uniformity of decision essential
to just judgment. It is to thrust upon
the courts burden that they have no
precedents to enable them to carry, and
to give them power approaching
arbitration the abuse of which might
| aster.
An Aid to Business Virtue.
In considering violations of the anti
trust law we ought, of course, not to
forget that that law makes unlawful,
methods OF carrying on business which
before Its passage were regarded as evil
dence Of business sagacity and success.
and that they were denounced in this act
not because Of their intrinsic immoral
tty, but because of the dangerous re-
suits toward which they tended, the con-
centration of industrial power in the
hands of the few, leading to oppres-
sion and injustice. In dealing therefore,
with many OF the men who have used
| the methods condemned by the statute
for the purpose of maintaining a profit
able business, we may we'll facilitate a
change by them in the method of doing
business, and enable them to bring il
back into the zone of lawfulness, with
out losing to the country the economy
OF management by which. in our domestic
trade the cost of production has been
materially lessened, and in competition
with foreign manufacturers our foreign
trade has been greatly increased.
Through all our consideration of this
grave question, however, we must insist
that the suppression of competition. the
controlling of prices, and the monopoly
or attempt to monopolize in interstate
| commerce and business are not only un-
lawful, but contrary to the public good
and that they must be restrained and
punished until ended.
Asks National Corporation Law.
| therefore recommend the enactment
| Dy congress of a general law providing
Tor the formation of corporations to en-
|
states and with foreign nations. protect
ing them from undue interference by
the states and regulating their activities
| so as to prevent the recurrence Under
national auspices, Of those abuses which
have arisen under state control. such
a law should provide for the issue of
stock OF such corporations 20 an amount
equal only to the cash paid in on the
! stock: and If the stock be issued FOR
! property, then at fair valuation ascer-
tanned under approval and supervision or
federal authority after full and COM
| plete disclosure of all the facts pertain
ing to the value of such property and the
interest therein Of the persons to whom
it is proposed to issue stock in payment
OF such property. 1t should subject the
real and personal property only of such
corporations to the same taxation as i'm
posed by the states within which it NAV
! be situated upon other similar propertv
located therein, and it should REQUIRE
such corporations to file full and COM
plete reports of their operations with the