Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-07-21
Attorney GENERAL WICkERSHAM
nECIARES MORE RIGID REGULATION
INTERPRETATIONS BY GOVERNMENT

SOClatlOn yesterday dIlelHool' 0eIoA
new General Wickersham made SOM
rather startling statements in his rel
erence to corporations and their con
troll.
MANY of Mr.. Underestimate declara
tons were he most radical he mas
made since his entrance into officla
life. With the weight of an admins
tration officer behind them, ms re
marks made deep impression. There
was nothing in the speech, however
to indicate how far the attorney gen
eral reflected the views OF President
Taft. On several occasions III the
mast year he has been regarded as
the spokesman for the administration
The attorney general discussed the
general uestiOn OF what further reg
ulation of interstate commerce Is
necessary or desirable from a broad
point of view and said that he had not
attempted to express conclusion but
merely to state the elements OF a
great problem, which goes to the root
of the prosperity of the American
people.
over corporations carrying on COM
merce among the states may be nee
essary," lie said, lis coming to be a
matter of current comment. 1t mas
been openly advocated quite recently
bv representatives of some of the
largest combinations Of capital, prob
ably as means of salvation and to
preserve under government super
vision, great organizations whose con-
tinued existence is menaced by the
recent Interpretation of the Sherman
antitrust act, the disintegratlOn
which would necessarily be attended
with much loss. TO such it is a case
of any port in a shipwreck,' better
continued cooperation, life, even un-
der a powerful master, than dissent
mated properties and segregated activ-
tiles without constant governmental
supervision.
But there are other reasons for
such regulation. The federal depart
ment of justice is not organized or
equipped to maintain constant super
vision and control over business or
CARNATIONS. 1t deals only with cases
of violation of the law. The activities
of an administrative board or commits
sion would be directed to preventing
such violations and in aiding business
men to maintain a continued status
of harmony with the requirements of
law.
whether or not such federal in
dustrial commission should have pow
er to regulate prices, is, of course, a
matter for serious consideration. The
interstate commerce law prescribes as
a legislative rule that prices for trans
portation by rail, or wire, or pipe line,
shall be reasonable. and that no un-
just discrimination shall be made be-
tween individuals or localities similar
ly situated. A similar rule might be
declared by congress with respect to
the prices of commodities the subject
of interstate commerce.
Eve have become accustomed to
the regulation of rates, of transporta-
ton, but the suggestion that prices of
commodities be regulated by congress
seems novel and radical.
"Yet the principle on which the reg
ulation of TRANSFORMATION rates is
based is simply that when property is
used in a manner to make it of pub
lie consequence and affect the CON-
modify at large it becomes clothed
with public use and may be con-
trolled by the public for the common
good. In the early days in some
parts of this country statutes were
enacted to regulate the business of
millers and the rates they might
charge for grinding. At that time it
was a matter OF public concern that
every farmer should have the right
to have his corn ground at reason
able rate.
$50 today the conduct of the great
commerce on staple articles among
the states is becoming a matter Of
public consequence and the courts
have upheld legislation regulating it,
and prescribing some of the condi-
tons under which it may be car
ried on. TO require as one Of these
conditions, that prices for commodi-
ties dealt in interstate commerce,
must be reasonable, only involves
new application of the same principle.
"The antitrust legislation of the
United States and most of the sep
arate states is based on the theory
that the natural price of an article
is fixed by the operation CT the nat
ural law of supply and demand, work.
ing without artificial restraint
But the fact is that the law of sup.
ply and demand does not and has not
for many years worked in this coun-
try in a natural unrestrained and un.
fettered manner. The government in
the first instance interposes an arti-
ficial restraint in the protective tariff
on imports. True, the theory of this
tariff is to equalize conditions of COM
petition; to place. as it were, hand
leap on the foreign competitor who
has produced his commodities under
conditions less burdensome than those
under which the American manufac-
turer produces his. But. in fact. the
inequalities resulting from the meth
DDS of tariff legislation are very often
impossible to justify on the theory of
sufficient protection only. and the re-
sulting price is that fixed by linn
tied competition between dealers in
the market from which foreign COM
petitors to certain extent excluded.
Nor is this all: 1t is probably safe
to say that in almost every one of the
great staple industries prices have
been for years fixed nv agreement he-