The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-06-16

lpfeteQ an lneHecIlNe remedy IN the
Just complaint of the ordinary man
against monopolies," Judge Peter S.
IGrossup of the United States circuit
court of appeals, proposed in the
commencement address before the uni
versity of Iowa today a new method of
dealing with trusts.
ITO recognize combination and mon
lopoly as something necessarily here
square the law to the fact-and then,
as a condition to granting corporate
power at all, reserve the right to reg
ulate dividends" is the remedy Judge
Grosscup advances.
Judge Grosscup's discussion of the
remedy proposed by him was prefaced
by a review of the Sherman act in
which he said:
"As interpreted prior to May of this
year the Sherman antitrust act was
believed to be a weapon, in the hands
of tie men who happened to consti-
tute the administration at Washing
ton, to destroy such specific monopolies
and combinations as the administra-
tion chose to consider hurtful to COM
petition in enterprise. Instead the
Sherman act became a sunken mine,
over which nearly every form of en-
terprise had to sail-the fuse that
would set it off, or keep it harmless,
running direct to the Office of the at
torney general at Washington.
"But will big business continued
Judge Gosscup, with no restraint
hanging over it other than the Sher-
man act as now interpreted, desist
from being brutal? Will one of these
big business enterprises, caught now
and then employing the prohibited ac-
cessory methods and ordered to re-
habilitate, as the Standard Oil and to-
bacco combinations have been ordered
to rehabilitate, prevent others from
taking their chances along the same
lines, or from taking chances along
other lines?" Reverting 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 an
swer is, that, in 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
company's domicile, or the bulk OF
whose finished product is sold in states
other than the company's domicile,
thereby bringing their business into in
terstate commerce, the principle I am
urging should be applied by the ma
tional government, through such pro-
eesses as will make it practically COM
pelling that enterprises of this kind
organize as corporations under the
United States laws.
ITO that extent, at least, I am for
the new nationalism. By the hand of
single sovereignty, and that the SUI
preme sovereignty, can the principle,
it seems to me, be effectively applied
to the big so-called trusts. But this
does not mean that the smaller manu-
Featuring and trading corporations in
any given field of enterprise should
be nationally incorporated From
these arises no monopoly. And where,
among these smaller concerns, com
binations arise in unreasonable re-
straint of trade, the Sherman act as
now interpreted would probably be
sufficient.
But where should be run the line
of separation, you ask, between those
to be nationally Incorporated and those
to whom a restriction as to dividends
is to be applied, from those to whom
it is not applied, though nationally in.
corporated. My answer is that ma.
tional incorporation should depend on
whether the business involved is
chiefly national or chiefly local-a
feasible measure OF this being the per
centage that is not local; and that
whether the restrictions as to divi
dends should apply or not should de
pend on whether the business, in its
special field OF enterprise, practically
excludes effective competition OF
whether it does not-a feasible meas
ure of this being the percentage of the
whole business of that field that is
done by the company involved In other
words, if the bulk of the business oi
the company is national, let the ma
tion be the parent and regulator o.
! the corporate advantages under which
it is conducted, and if it absorbs en-
ough of the business of the line ii
which it is engaged to enable it tC
throw off effective competition; lie
the principle of fair dividends be ap
piled.
| "The national bureau of corDOra