Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-12-14
URGES BUREAU |
TO SUPERVISE
CORPORATIONS
Attorney General WiCkersham
Submits Annual Report
to Congress
Department is Engaged in
Prosecution Of Many
Important Cases
(By Associated Press.)

(6y associated Press.)
WASHINGTON, December A.
Pursuing President Taft's recon-
mendation that an executive bureau
be created to supervise corporations
| chartered under federal incorpora,
ton act, Attorney General Wicker.
sham, in his annual report submitted
to Congress today, suggests that the
Bureau of Corporations be raised to
that dignity, even in the absence of
the proposed federal incorporation
statute.
This branch of the Department of
Commerce and Labor, the attorney
general urges, should be brought into
closer relation with his department
and adds that it might we'll be
"availed of as the nucleus for an ad-
ministrative board under whose su.
pervision consultations or mergers
for lawful purposes might be
formed"
In enforcing the Sherman anti
trust law, the attorney general points
out that the department of Justice
and the courts are confronted by eco
nomic, rather than legal, problems
when it comes to working out meth
DDS of disintegration after a corpora.
ton has been declared an illegal
combination. The department en-
listed the assistance of the bureau of
corporations in the dissolution of the
tobacco trust, and it would be of
great value to the legal branch of the
government, Mr.. Wickerstam says, If
the functions of the bureau should
be SO enlarged that it could be called
upon officially to make Investigations
and report its conclusions with re-
spect to plans for the voluntary or
enforced disintegration Of monopo-
listic combinations.
The attorney general reviews the
record of a year Of intense activity
in federal prosecutions and points
out that the Department Of Justice
financially sustained itself as the re-
suit of the contribution of $4,204,11
to the United States treasury in the
shape of fines collected, customs
duties, recoveries, etc. The expense
of the department., including the
office Of the attorney general all OF
the district attorneys and assistants
throughout the country aggregated
3,22e,I73.
In a comprehensive review of the
antitrust prosecutions, the attorney
general shows that the II antitrust
civil suits pending at the beginning
of the last fiscal year were augment
ed by GA additional actions, while the
II criminal prosecutions under tne
same statute were increased by %
more prosecutions during the last
fiscal year.
Eight civil suits and similar
number of criminal trials were
brought to conclusion during the
year. In four of the civil prosecu-
tions judgments were rendered ID
favor of the United States, while
three were lost and one was discon-
tinued. Four convictions were Sc
cured until the criminal clause Of
the statute during the year and four
cases were either Quashed Of disco1l-
tinued.
Declaring that he appreciates that
public interest in the Sherman anti
trust law was "even greater" than
it was at the date of his last report,
the attorney general set forth the
following cases as being prosecuted
Dr. pending for final settlement:
The powder trust; the might
rides cases; United States Steel
cotton corner; alleged
owing monopoly; beef packers;
Southern Pacific merger; bitumlnoos
,oal combination; naval stores suit;
,athtub trust; lumber trust;
milk trust; wall paper comoina'
ion: sugar 'trust"; transatlantic
steamship pool; magazine trust;
.hoe machinery trust; combina-
ion of coal roads; elevator suit IN
oklahoma. and kindling wood trust:
Emphasizing his satisfaction with I
ho decree of the New York Circuit
,ourt in the tobacco dissolution tne
Lttorney general has this to say Oh
tobacco interests VINO
ave criticized the plan Of disintegra' ::
ion:
"Competitors of the existing comol'
a+ion were eager to compel the I'M
os;t;on of terms or conditions OF the
isintegration which would nave
oade a solvent, successful business
impossible, would nave
roueht about a receivershtD OF the
ronertv and forced judicial sales,
esn,ting in great financial loss, not
nlv to those interested In the com
,ra+;cn hut to the business inter
zts Of the country at large, and IN
he end would have benentted only
he yery individuals who mad been
ominant in the formation OF the
ombination, as they are possessed q
,eans ample enough to proht by 1e
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