The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-09-18

HI laundering lo put iHto perlecuy
 -
 wonderful elasticity and adaptability
 of remedy by injunction in equity. and | has at the same time manifested Q
 due regard for the welfare of the in-
 nocent business men and the com munity at large, who, in a cataciysm caused by the confiscation of such enormous capital as are involved ir these combinations and a suspension of the legitimate part of their busi- ness, would be buried with them in 8 common ruin.
 1 The court has exhibited courage in facing the necessary results in en- 1 forcing the statute that, instead of prompting an attack on 1t, ought to | make every American proud that we have such tribunal. It is now en-
 forcing its decree against the Stan I dard Oil Co. and against the Tobacco | Co.,, and it is making those great com
 binations divide themselves into act ually competing parts under such pro- visions in the decree that an injunc- tion shall be constantly operative to prevent by contempt proceedings any assumption of the old relations of a l monopoly. This was an easier mat ter in reference to the Standard Odl 1 Co.,, because it was easy to divide up the various companies that were 1 united by the ownership of stock of l all the companies in single holding company. Tn the Tobacco Go. the decree could not be worked out so cas- 1 fly, and it will be necessary to separ- ate the properties owned by single companies and to distribute these plants into different and differing ownerships in order to create. compe- tition between them and maintain that competition by the power of a contin- uing injunction against any future union, or any agreement to avoid fu- ture competition. It needed these two great decisions to teach the bus mess public that at least not in the supreme tribunal of this country would the claim be listened to, that in this Gay and generation we have
 passed beyond the possibility of free competition as consistent with proper business growth, or that we have reached time when only regulated monopoly and the fixing of prices by
 governmental authority are consistent with future progress. We did get along with competitions; we can get along with it. We did get along without monopoly; we can get along this country must square themselves to that necessity. Either that, or we must proceed to State socialism and vest the Government with power to run every business The decision of the Supreme Court is in the highest interest of the public. and I am glad to think that business men who have been violating the trust law are now being made to see the necessity For putting their houses in order, chang ing their original organizations, giv- ing up the idea that it is necessary to control markets in order to make profits, and reverting to the old prin- Hcfple of free competition, in which all limit upon it to prevent it's being ex- cessive must be self-imposed by the good sense of each competitor and not by any arrangement or contract be- tween competitors or secret stfpula- ton or wink or nod.
 The decision of the Supreme Court as it grows to be understood in the near future will be a signal for the voluntary breaking up of all comb1na- tions in restraint of trade within the inhibition of the statute, and will, hope, lead to complete revulsion of feeling on the part of the business men of this country and to a clear understanding by them of the imita- tions that must be imposed by them upon any business combinations made by them in the future. The operation
 
 slowness of judicial procedure, and of this I have often made complaint; but in the settlement of issues of this importance two decades are no great length of time, and if in that period we shall have stamped out an evil which would certainly have carried us to socialism as a reaction from the vicious control of the few, the time spent, tr effort, and the litigation are worth the cost There havs reen times when among others [ oaye thought that the enforcement of the law might have been facilitated had the courts visited it's breach with severer punishment. but Though the mills of the gods grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small,'' and without the severity that some of us urged and would have been glad to see used, a revolution in business methods where they have heretofore been violative of the statute will be accomplished, and with least disturb ance to business which IS lawful
 In a special message on the subject of trusts which I sent to Congress January z, 1910, I said:
 "It is the duty and tile purpose of the Executive to direct an investiga- | tion by the Department of Justice. | through the grand jury or oth(wise, into the history, organization, ec6  panies with respect to which there is | any reasonable ground for suspicion | that they have been organized for a l purpose, and are conducting business On a plan whicn is in violation of the | antitrust law. The work is a heavy one, but it is not beyond the power 1 of the Department of Justice if suf11- l cient funds are furnished to carry on 1 the investigations and to pay the | counsel engaged in the work
 I wish to repeat this now, and to | say further that the Attorney General | has instituted investigations into all l the industrial companies above de- | scribed, and that these are in various stages of completion.
 Under these conditions, I am entire y opposed to an amerNment of the | antitrust law It is now a valuable | asset and instrument. Tested and brought into practical and beneficial use by 20 years of litiga- ton and construction by the highest court, why should we imperil it's use- 'ulness by experiments? The outcry sought to be raised in some quarters,