Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-18

attack on IT ought TO make every AIllei
lean proud that We have such tribunal.
1t is now enforcing it's decree against the
Standard Oil Company and against the
Tobacco company. and it Is making those
great combinations divide themselves into
actually competing parts under Such pro-
visions in the decree that injunction
shall be constantly operative to prevent
by contempt proceedings any assumption
of the old relations of monopoly. This
was an easier matter in reference to the
Standard Oil COMPANY because it was
easy to divide UP the various companies
that were united by the ownership OF
stock. of all the companies in single
holding company.
Tobacco Case Difficult.
In the tobacco company the decree
could not be worked out so easily. and
il will he necessary to separate the prop
| critics owned by single companies and to
| distribute these plants into different and
differing ownerships in order to create
that competition by the power of con-
| tinuing injunction against any future
union. or any agreement to avoid future
competition. 1t needed these two great
decisions to teach the business public
that AT least not in the supreme tribunal
of this country would the claim be listen
ed to. that in this. day and generation
we have passed beyond the possibility
of free competition as consistent with
proper business growth. or that we have
reached a time when only regulated
monopoly and the fixing of prices by
governmental authority arc consistent
with future progress.
I'VE did get along with competition:
we can get along with it. We did get
along without monopoly: we can get
along without it: and the business men of
this country must square themselves TO
that necessity. Either that or we must
tot toll -ncff t1n
government with power to run every
business. The decision of the Supreme
Court is in the highest interest of the
public. and / am glad to think that bust
ness men who have been violating the
trust law are now being made to see the
necessity for putting their houses in or
der. changing their original organizations.
giving up the idea that it is necessary to
control markets in order to make profits
and reverting to the old principle of free
competition in which all limit upon it
to prevent it's being excessive must he
self-mposed by the good sense of each
competitor and not by any arrangement
or contract between competitors or secret
stipulation or wink or nod.
Tine decision of the Supreme Court a S
it grows to be understood in the near fu-
ture will be signal for the voluntary
breaking up of all combinations in re-
straint of trade within the inhibition of
the statute. and will 1 hope. lead to
complete revulsion of feeling on the part
of the business men of this country and
to clear understanding by them of the
limitations that must be imposed by them
upon any business combinations made by
them in the future.
Led Toward Socialism
1.-THE operation of the statute has illus
trated the slowness of judicial procedure.
and of this have often made complaint
p,r in fhc IF nf &c
Importance two decades are no great
length of time. and if i'll that period We
shall have stamped out an evil which
would certainly have carried us to social
ism as a reaction from the vicious con-
trol of the few. the time spent, tho effort
and tho litigation are worth the cost
There have been times when among
others I have thought that the enforce
ment of the law might have been facili
tated had the courts visited its breach
with severer punishment, but Though the
mills of the gods grind slowly. yet they
grind exceeding small, and without the
severity that some of us urged and would
have been glad TO see used revolution
in business methods where they have
heretofore heen violative of the statute
will he accomplished. and with the least
disturbance to business which is lawful
In special message on the subject
of trusts which ! sent to Congress Janu-
AIRY !. 1910 | said.
Tt is the duty and the purpose of the
| executive to direct an investigation by
the Department of Justice. through the
grand jury otherwise, into the history.
organization and purposes of all the in
dustrial companies with respect to which
there Is any reasonable ground for sus-
picion that they have been organized for
"A purpose. and are conducting business
on plan which is In violation of the
antitrust law. The work is a heavy one,
but it is not beyond the power of the
Ill
are furnished to carry on the investiga-
tions and to pay the counsel engaged in
the work.
Il wish to repeat this now. and to say
further that the Attorney General has
instituted Investigations into all the in
dustrial companies above described. and
that these are in various stages of COM
pletion.
Opposed to Amending Law.
Under these conditions I am entirely
opposed to an amendment of the anti
, trust law 1t is now valuable govern
ment asset and instrument. Tested and
brought into practical and beneficial use
by twenty years of litigation and con-
str,Iction by the highest court why
should we imperil its usefulness by eX-
pertinent? The cutlery sought to be raised
in some quarters, followed by proposal Is
of amendments prepared without real
understanding of the law or the court S
decisions NAV serve the purpose of pro-
noting unreasonable and unreasoning
| discomfort but certainly ought not to be
considered seriously.
when an amendment is proposed, let
ahe prepayment state the defect In the
statute the amendment is TO remedy. and
i how it will affect 1t.
| If the avowed purpose is to make it
| impossible to use reason In the construc-
ton Of the statute the Supreme Court
did let the mover OF the amendment
/ formulate a case Of restraint of inter-
| state trade not condemned under the
Supreme Courts construction of the stat
ute which ought to be condemned. Let
us avoid general expressions. Let us
avoid charges of improper motives. Let
us come down to concrete cases and facts
/ nd he CHI fnr amendment