The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-19

Volyed in these combinations and Sus- pension Of the legitimate part of their business, would be buried with them in a common ruin.
 Court Exhibited Courage
 'The court has exhibited a courage in facing the necessary results in enforcing the statute that. instead of prompting an attack on 1t, ought to make every Amer lean proud that we have such tribunal. It is now enforcing it's decree against the Standard Oil company, and against the tobacco company, and 1t is making those great combinations divide themselves into actually competing parts under such pro visions in the decree that an injunction shall be constantly operative to prevent by contempt proceedings any assumption of the old relations of a monopoly.
 The decision of the supreme court as if grows to be understood in the near future will be signal for the voluntary breaking up all combinations In restraint of trade within the inhibition of the statute, and will. I hope. lead to a com plete revulsion of feeling on the part of the business men of this country and to a clear understanding by them of the limi- tations that must be imposed by them upon any business combinations made by them in the future. The operation of the statute has illustrated the slowness of )u- dicial procedure. and of this l have often made complaint; but in the settlement Of issues of this importance two decades are no great length of time and II Tn that period we shall have stamped cut an evil which would certainly have car ried us to socialism as a reaction from the vicious control of the few. the time spent, the effort, and the litigation are worth the cost There have been times when among others I have thought that the enforcement of the law might have been facilitated had the courts visited it's breach with severer punishment, but Though the mills of the gods grind slow ly, yet they grind exceedingly small and without the severity that some of US urged and would have been glad to see used. a. revolution in business methods where they have heretofore been vioaliVe of the statute will be accomplished, and with least disturbance to business, which Is lawful.
 Opposed to an Amendment
 Under these conditions l am en tirely opposed to an amendment of the antitrust law. It Is now a val uable government asset and instru- ment Tested and brought into prae- tical and beneficial use by 20 years of litigation and construction by the highest court, why should we imperil it's unsefulness by experiments? The outcry sought to be raised In some quarters, followed by proposals Of amendments prpeared without a real of the law or the courts decisions, may serve the purpose of promoting unreasonable and unreason ing dlscontent, but certainly ought not to be considered seriously ~|
 When an amendment is proposed, let the proponent state the defect in the statute the amendment is to remedy, and how it will effect it.
 If the avowed purpose is to make 1t impossible to use reason in the con- struction of the statute as the su- preme court did let the mover of the amendment formulate case or re straint of interstate trade not con- demned under the supreme courts con struction of the statute, which ought to be condemned Let us avoid gen oral expressions Let us avoid charges of improper motives. Let us come down to concrete cases and facts and make a showing for an amendment that lawyer and a legislator can under stand and weigh and not be conten. with mere rhetoric and language use ful only for Reclamation. Tn my message of January ', 1910, 1 advocated the passage of statute which shall permit the incorporation of
  merce by the federal government. believe that statute might be drawn to furnish the protection which would induce companies engaged chiefly in in terstate trade to take on federal in- corpora tion, and that by the supervision which might be maintained by an eX- ecutive bureau of the government over their transactions 1t would be possible to prevent future violations of the anti-trust law by those companies on the one hand and to secure to them freedom from constant fear of prosecu- ton on the other. But this statute would in no way be an amendment or the antitrust law, which has now reached a period In its history when II is really accomplishing the purpose of It's farmers and is enforcing a reform In the business methods of this coun- try which will be as useful as it is widespread.' ti3
 Bay City. Mich, September 1s.-With q speech on the relation the militia bears to the regular army and the national defensa President Taft brought his first day in Michigan on his western trip to close here tonight It was the eighth speech today. He spoke at the dedication of Bay City's new armory. The same state of enthusiastic welcome that has greeted
 
 lNeu Colds
 Never hesitate in ask v0u,r-