Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-01-13
CHECK ON SECURITY ISSUES.
tegislation Is Asked to Prevent Wa
tering of Stocks and Other
Kindred Evils.
WOULD RETAIN SHERMAN LAW
Aims to Foster .'Economfzing'' Fea-
lures of Combinations and End
sEMonopoHzing'' Evils.

President Taft has sent to Congress
his long delayed and much discussed
message on interstate commerce and
antitrust legislation.
In it he strikes at the existence of
holding corporations by which major
trusts control their subsidiaries and
at the watering of corporation stock
To insure the more complete control
of railroads by the government he de-
mands the formation of Court Of
Commerce, to comprise five judges,
having power to act as court of ap-
peals from the ruling of the Inter
state Commerce Commission The
President dips into railway employees
safety also, urging new features Of
the liability law.
State control of corporations is Wig
orously attacked; the President
charges it with the responsibility for
many corporation abuses, and he takes
firm stand for centralized power
He demands that railroads be for
hidden to control their competitors and
would give the Interstate Commission
sweeping increases in power.
Declaring distinction between good
and bad trusts to be impossible, the
President says emphatically that if the
| trusts are to be kept within the law
new legislation creating national cor
porations under charter is urgently
needed This, the main provision of
| the antitrust section, was announced
sometime ago, as were many of the
| other terms of the message.
Such a move, the President points
out, is not to afford the trust a refuge,
as the Sherman laws repeal is not
| contemplated.
The proposed statute, according to
the message, is not to be framed SO
as to permit the doing of the wrongs
which it is the purpose of that (the
Sherman law to prevent, but only to
foster a continuance and advance of
the highest industrial efficiency with
| Out permitting industrial abuses
The President also includes a Wig
| orous promise that the United States
prosecution of trusts will be continued
unremittingly.
| President Taft's Message.
| To the Senate and House of Representa-
What is of supreme Importance is that
| q uniformity of decision be secured so
as to bring about an effective, system
| attic and scientific enforcement of the
| commerce law, rather than conflicting de-
eisions and uncertainty of final result
| For this purpose I recommend the es-
| adjustment of a court of the United
| States composed of five judges designated
| for such purpose from among the Circuit
| Judges of the United States, to be known
| as the United States Court of Com
merce, which court shall be clothed
with exclusive original jurisdiction over
the following classes of cases:
| 90 All cases for the enforcement
otherwise than by adjudication and coll
| lection, of a forfeiture or penalty, or by
| mftction of criminal punishment, of any
| order of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission other than for the payment of
| money.
90 All cases brought to enjoin, set
| aside, annul or suspend any order or re-
| 1uirement of the Interstate Commerce
| Commission.
! CD All such cases as under section 3
| Of the act of Feb. 49, 1903, known as the
| 'ElBins act are authorized to be main
| tanned in a Circuit Court of the United
| States
| (4) All such mandamus proceedings
| as under the provisions of section 20 or
| section % of the interstate commerce
| law are authorized to be maintained in
| Circuit Court of the United States
In my opinion all litigation affecting
| the government should be under the di-
| rect control of the Department of Justice
| and / therefore recommend that all pro-
| ceedIngS affecting orders and DEGREES of
| the Interstate Commerce Commission be
| brought by or against the United States
| ct nOmine. and be placed in charge on
| an assistant attorney general acting I'M
| der the direction of the attorney general.
| I see no reason why the commission
| should not be authorized to act on its
| own initiative as well as upon the COM
/ plant of an individual in investigating
| the fairness of any existing rate or -prac-
| tee: and recommend the amendment of
| the law to so provide and also that the
| commission shall be fully empowered. be-
| yond any question, to pass upon the
| classlhcations of commodities for purpose
| OF liking rates. in like manner as it may
now do with respect to the maximum
/ rate applicable to any transportation.
| End Rail- Combines
| I recommend that the law shall be
! amended so as to provide that from and
| after the date of its passage no railroad
| company subject to the interstate COM
| Rerce act shall, directly or indirectly. ac-
| qulre any interests of any kind in capital
| stock or purchase or lease any railroad
| of any other corporation which completes
| with it respecting business to which the
| interstate commerce act applies
| But especially for the protection of the
minority stockholders in securing to them
| the best market for their stock. [ recon-
| mend that such prohibition be coupled
with a proViso that it shall not operate
to prevent any corporation. which at the
date of passage of such act. shall own
not less than one-haf of the entire issued
and outstanding capital stock of any
other railroad company, from acquiring
all or the remainder of such stock
I recommend the enactment OF a law
providing that no railroad corporation