The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-11-21
NO HURRY TO AMEND.

Those who arc about 10 propose
amendments 70 the antitrust law would
do well 10 take care what they do;
for That. law Is Just beginning 10 be
understood. II has both civic and Grim
inal penalties, and the courts are Just
| getting to the final determination OF
what constitutes iufraction Of the law,
and what is the appropriate penalty
therefor. II is idle. as 1t seems 20 us,
TO. talk about the inadcquacv of the
law until we have finally determined
the limitations aud the benefits OF
that law rs 1t is.
How does any one know that the
antitrust law is inadequate until the
courts have set its limits aud those
! limits arc found TO be short of what
! the evils require for their extinction
| There has been somc adjudication on
the civil side of the law, bat the Grim
insl side of that law is yet practically
uDtestcd. The prosecutions against the
meat packers that are now on, having
taken the criminal form, will DO doubt
acquaint the public, in some degree
at least. with the possibilities or prac-
ticabilities. and the limitations of the
law on its criminal side. Whether the
law will be found defective on this
side or not il is wiser 10 wait and see
than TO pronounce IN advance that the
law is inadequate aud. needs TO be
amended or strengthened,
So far. nobody knows whether the
law needs 10 be amended on its Grim
ins side or not There appears 10 be,
however, an insistent public clamor
that il is not enough to put into CT.
feet the civil side Of the law, but the
criminal side should be made more
prominent than it has been. Whether
there should be such attention paid 20
this public clamor prior TO the adiudi-
cation of what il is possible TO do un-
der the criminal side of the law, is an
inquiry that ought not 10 be inter
posed at this time. For. the criminal
side Of the ANTITRUST law has been
neglected hitherto, Just ms the civil
side of il had lncen neglected for many
years. And now that the criminal side
of the law is beginning to be tested,
let us wait aud find out what il will
give us in place of assuming at once
that il is not adequate and will not
give us what we ought to have. For a
long time il was held that the law it,
self, both on its civil and criminal
side, was negligible; but, as soon as
real efforts were made to enforce that
Law, il was found to be extremely dras-
found equally so on the criminal side
when the courts reach their final con-
clusion about it.
Another thing should be considered
with great care. II takes a long time
to get the adjudication of the L. :.
supreme Court on questions coming
before that tribunal; because the court
docket is very long, the cases on it
are very important, and thus far the
court has been falling more and more
behind every year in the cases on its
calendar It is said that. BY the new
rules adopted. the business of the court
will he expedited; which we trust may
he the case. But the point that we
wish TO enforce is. that the adiudica
tion OF anv principle. and the settling
OF any given point by the L. s. Su-
prcmc Court. is matter of so much
importance, that nothing should be
done unnecessarily to uuscttlc that
principle or point after it has been set
forth by the court. Now the court has
made important adiudicalions under
the antitrust law; any new legislation
by way Of amendments Of that law. are
very likely to unsettle this adjudca
ture, and 10 reopen the matters already
settled hy the court, and compel their
consideration on Il new basis.
1t is clearly advantageous. therefore,
for the law and the court decrccs to
stand as delivered until we have got
TO the end of the litigation of the law.
Then, if we find that the law is dc
fectiyc, that it needs Strengthening,
either ON its criminal or its civil side, |
the points in which the law fails can
be clearly stated. and the law strength |
ened accordingly. But until the final
on different points or
principles in the law. both on the
civil and criminal side, have been
reached, it would be the height Of un-
wisdom 10 interfere with this adiudi- |
cation by throwing into il new legisla.
ton, not only unsettling everything
that HIS been done. but providing a
new basis for all future suits.
ACCOMMODATION PROBABLE.