The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-07
SHONTS TALKS OF ANTITRUST LAW
 AND ITS EFFECTS
Traction Magnate Surprised By Recent Interpretation
 of the Sherman Act
SEES REVERSAL OF
 FORM IN DECISION
Says the Public Was Misled By the Trend of Earlier and More Lib eral Decisions of the
 Courts
py THEODoRE P. sHoNTs

By THEODORE P. sHONTS President InterborOugh Rapid Transit
 Company and of the Chicago md
 Alton Railroad
 (Note-In view of the wide interest in the trust question, The Age-Herald has arranged for a series of articles by prominent men of the nation whc will discuss every phase of the sub ject. The article today is by Colonel Theodore P. Shonts. Colonel Shonts Is one of the foremost engineers in Amer ica He became president of the To- ledo, St. Louis and Western railroad in 1898 and loomed largely in the public view when President Roosevelt ap- pointed him chairman of the Panama canal commission in 1906. In 1907 ne resigned his Panama position and ac- cepted the presidency of the Inter- orough-Metropolitan company, operat- ing the New York street railways Colonel Shonts was born in Pennsyl- vania and graduated at Monmouth col lege in 1878. He studied law and was admitted to the Iowa bar. He practiced law until 1SS2)
 Criticism of the interpretation of pub lie statute by the highest court prob ably would be out of place from any quarter, but of course would have no vglue when proceeding from layman' Nevertheless, surveying the situation with respect to the Sherman law, in the light of ire recent decisions of the supreme court, am much impressed with two con- alterations:
 First, the statute as now construed op- poses a nationwide principle of economic cevelopment that is to say, the principle of combination, deliberately adopted and acted upon by the people of the United States throughout generation.
 second, 1t is extremely unfortunate that the business public of the United States should have been misled by the trend of the earlier decisions of the courts into the belief that thIs principle would be aI- lowed to stand.
 Great Basic Question Involved There is a great fundamental question, lcf course, whether, upon the whole' the soundest national progress In commercial affairs will be promoted by consolidation of rasources and facilities or by their widespread distribution among the lndi- y,duals composing the nation.
 Great national wealth and power have been developed by both processes In France, to illustrate, where there are many employers compared to the total number of employees, and many small but few large fortunes. we have striking example of the accumulation of national wealth and power through the process or distribution.
 Jn the United States, however, the op- rosIte theory, that combinations are es- scntial to maximum commercial devel- opment, has always obtained. This Is doubtless because our citizens are less tied down to family traditions of trade and employment, are endowed with an ambition which dssatisfles them with a moderate competence, the ordinary lot of individual success, and are fired with an Imagination which hurries them on to the accomplishment of those great results possible only through extensive combina- tions
 Combination Natural Passion
 Our comparatively new community, re- nuirng greater resources for its devel- opment than the individual usually cona- mands, and the absence of state control
  su.plenenting individual effort, have had much to do with this tendency to com bination.
 There is no doubt, moreover. that in many cases-as, for example. in that of stiee. railways, telephone companies, and railway consultations creating through lines-public convenience has been largely served through the policy of combina- tion. se
 The earlier combinations, however, too frankly aimed at actual monopoly and ..ie methods by which their ends were at tained were not always overscrupulous A vague feeling of danger was thus spread among the people which in time led to the enactment of the Sherman law
 AS to the good effect of that law. inso- ( far as 1t served to check monopolstic tendencies, think there can be no reas- onable doutt;. but what Is unfortunate with respect tor tine jaw is that the public obtained the impression from the earlier decisions of the supreme court that the influence of the statute was not to be ex- tended beyond this point; that the prin- ciple of combination was to be left in tact. and that mere magnitude of busi- ness organization. or. extensive ownership of property, even though leading to a oomina.l Ng influence in particular trade or blsin~ss, was( n itself to be con- demned. .ttt+ .-f.e4. isGSe
 Industrial Lines ' pset
 It seems that these views. widely en- tertained by. the industrial section of the community and based largely upon this earlier conception of the law, have been .,Idely upset by the later turn of affairs.
 speak of the industria! section because |, public service corporations, which had a.- ready been subject to state regulation, to inhibitions against amalgamation of par a.el and competing lines, and to similar legislation.' have not been SO seriously disturbed by the late decisions But those of our people interested In organizations Of this character are few, indeed com rared to those interested in our many and great industrial enterprises
 Ii is apparent, therefore. that a con- st,uction of the statute which reyerses the current of industrial progress and requires the disintegration into individ- ual units of combinations formed under a different though perhaps mistaken con- struction of the law must have a pro- found bearing upon our commercial pro- gress as whole. upon the creation of pri,ate wealth. and even upon the social development of our people.
 Is the Game Worth the Candle?
 Whether the cost of conforming to the new standard of commercial life may not be too great for the advantages that the uatio,. might otherwise derive therefrom would seem to be question for the se-
 
 SOQNTINUED ON PAGn 4l