The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-06-14
10 Commencement Address Before
Iowa University He Says
the Sherman Act Is
Ineffective
WOULD REGULATE DIVIDENDS
Thinks Some Corporations Should Be
Organized Under National Laws
and Some Under tho
State Laws.

Iowa City, Ia, June 1l.-Declaring
the sherman act "even as now inter
preted an Ineffective remedy i'm the
Just complaint Of the ordinary man
against monopolios" Judge Peter s
Grosscup Of the United states Circuit
Court Of Appeals, proposed in the
commencement address before the I'm
iversity Of Iowa today new method
OF dealing with trusts.
ITO recognize combination and mo-
nopoly as something necessarily here
square, the law TO the fact-and then,
as condition 10 granting corporate
power at all, reserve the right divl-
dends,' is the remedy Judge Cross
cup advances.
Judge Grosscup's discussion of the
remedy proposed by him was pre-
faced by a review of the Sherman
act In which he said:
"As Interpreted prior 10 May Of this
year the Sherman Antitrust act was
believed to he a weapon in the hands
of the men who happened TO consti-
tute the administration at Washington.
To destroy such specific monopolies and
combinations as the administration
chose TO consider hurtful to competi
tion In enterprise Instead the Sher-
man Act became a sunken mine. over
which nearly every form of enterprise
had To sail-the fuse that would set
IL off, or keep 1t harmless running
direct to the office of The Attorney
General at Washington.
Law Is inadequate.
But will big business" continued
Judge Grosscup with no restraint
overit other than the Sherman
Act as now interpreted. desist from
being brutal? VIII one of these big |
business enterprises caught now and |
then employing the prohibited access
sorry methods and ordered TO rehabili- |
tate, as the Standard oil and Tobacco |
combinations have been ordered To re-
habilitate, prevent others from taking |
their chances along the same lines. or
from taking chances along other lines
Revertng to his remedy the Judge
continued:
But to which government. the ma
tional or the state, shall be given the
power to apply the remedy? My ans
wer Is, that, i'm the case of the big So
called trusts. such, for instance, as
the packers or the STANDARD oil Com
pany. the bulk of whose raw materials
is drawn from states other than the
domicile or the bulk of
whose finished product is sold i'm states
other than the company's domicile,
thereby bringing their business into
interstate commerce. the principle
am urging should be applied by the ma
tional government. through such pro-
cesses as will make it practically COM
peling that enterprises of this kind
organize as corporations under the
United states laws.
Proposal Very Simple
ITO that extent. at least. | am for
the new nationalism BY the hand Of
a single sovereignty, and that the su
prome sovereignty, can the principle, 1t
seems to me. be effectively applied 10
Inc biz so -fblleO lIuSlH. bul liliS ubto
not mean that the smaller manufac-
turing and trading corporations i'm any
given field of enterprise should be ma
tionally incorporated. From these
lrises no monopoly And where. among
these smaller concerns. combinations
arise in unreasonable restraint OF
trade. the Sherman Act as now inter-
preted would probably be sufficient
"The national bureau of corpora
tions has already access TO Information
that will show what these percentages
are.
II am proposing nothing really com
plex. Though the details will have To
be worked out with some difficulty. the
is simple. And once embod-
ed i'm the frame work of the laws. II
would be permanent.
Judge Grosscup discussed price sup
arvision as u method of government
regulation as distinguished from re-
,tricton on dividends price super
vision by government" the speaker
,aid. "would always and necessarily be
indirect and inexact. always open to
Iuctuatcd through the hostility or ia
,or of those who. for the time being.
we're In power. always open to ma
1ipulation by the trusts themselves"