New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-10-03
A COMMISSION ON TRUSTS
Proposed as a Means of Securing Reg
ulation More Agreeable to Business.


To the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir: The condemned man or the way 70
| execution gets little consolation from the
Injunction, "Obey the law. and have no
fear" Does President Taft expect 70
tranquilllze AMI encourage the business IN
terests OF the country by proclsiming mat
| from now on 70 the end OF HIS administra-
ton he will prosecute every great Industrial
combination That IS what his Detroit
and Waterloo speeches meant, for there is
not one such corporation whose FORMATION
and operation did not involve. technically
and necessarily, 10 a greater or less de-
gree, the suppression OF competition and
restraint OF trade.
The President seems 20 regard the Sher-
man antitrust law as the sum OF all
wisdom. He emphasized at length us
wonderful "adaptability.' II a law was
ever founded upon economic conditions
past and gone forever the Sherman act
Of 1890 IS now such law To imagine
that a Congress- OF twenty-one years ago
could. By statute arbitrarily set the limits
OF normal economic development and pre-
determine the natural and necessary forms
and limits OF business organization seems
incredible. preposterous. For the leader OF
the. nation and head Of great poltle4s.
party 10 90 through the country threaten
| ing 70 enforce that law IS. 70 say the
| least. grotesqUe.
D,d not the spirit Of the movement
toward expansion and solidarity prompt
President Taft 70 urge the nations OF the
world 10 league themselves IN a great
and holy union for peace? The Ink upon
hts treaties Of peace IS scarcely dry how
! ever when ne turns about and demands
perpetual warfare IN domestic INDUSTRY 7.
/ II the PRINCIPLES OF Justice and OF Christian
morality hold good IN one field they hold
| equally good IN every other field. Inc
| President wants organization and central
ization Of our banking resources but ne
denies that the same need exists in respect
20 our Industrial resources. Where IS the
fundamental difference?
The demand BY practical business men
that the law recognize the necessity OF
Industrial integration and that statesman
Ike provision De made for its accomplish
ment under rational public control the
President brushes aside with wave or
hts hand Competition or soc!alsm-that
Is his argument Is this hogie OF social
ism going 10 terrify the country into q
reactionary. reuograde policy = we
escape socialism. II VIII not be by laissez
faire or backward movement. II progress
leads 10 socialism. no one need worry
about II. Does President Taft sor the Re-
publican party want 70 stand on the issue
that progress and democracy mean social
ism?
What material difference is there be
tween the position Of the Democrats and
the insurgent Republicans on the one
hand. who demand that the antitrust law
30 so amended as 70 strike down imme-
d,ately and directly all trusts. and the post
ton Of the Taft Republicans on the other
that the law as II now stands needs only
enforcement in order % effect the dismem-
hernent Of all trusts? II is idenucal-y the
same end, by different methods. One would
destroy en- masse By legal fat; the other
would kill. one by one, By special judicial
process. Perhaps the latter IS preferable,
for Il will give US time 20 repent o. our
folly and change the law before the worst
IS done
How much longer must the country SUI
fer from Wild bungling OF the trust prob
lem? What better could President Taft
do than 10 request a Democratic Congress
20 cooperate with him n the selection OF
non-partisan commission composed OF
national leaders in manufacture, COM
uerce. finance, transportation, agriculture
and labor. together with the best economic
scientists. who should study the whole
trust question and report to the govern
ment and the American people the facts
and conclusions? What other course could
remove this greatest OF modern problems
from the low plane OF demagogic politics
and place It where il may be wisely solved
10 the immediate and lasting good Of all?
DELAIAR Z. HAWKINS,
S,-racrse Y y. oct !. l4lL