The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1911-06-16
REGULATE TRUST;
CONTROL DIVIDENDS
Is the Idea of Judge Gross
cup Who Addressed
Iowa Students.

Iowa City. June 16.-Declaring the
Sherman act, "even as now interpret
ed, an ineffective remedy in the just
complaint of the ordinary man against
monopolies," Judge Peter s. Grosscup.
OF the United States circuit court OF
appeals, proposed In the commence
ment address before the University OF
Iowa yesterday new method OF deal
ing with trusts.
ITO recognize combination and mon
opoly as something necessarily here
the law TO the fact-and then as con-
dit!on to granting corporate power at
all, reserve the right to regulate divi-
dends." is the remedy Judge Grosscup
advances.
Judge Grosscup's discussion OF the
remedy proposed by him was prefaced
by n 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 the man who happened to consti-
tute the administration at Washing
ton, to destroy such specific monopo-
lies and combinations as the admins
tration chose to consider hurtful to
competition in enterprise. Instead the
Sherman act became a sunken mine,
over which nearly every form Of enter
prise had to sail-the fuse that would
set II off. or keep II harmless. run
ming direct to the office OF the attor-
ney-general at Washington.
But will big business" continued
Judge Grosscup, with no restraint
hanging over II other than the Shar-
man act as now interpreted, desist
from being brutal? VIII one of these
big business enterprises, caught now
and then employing the prohibited ac-
ccssory methods and ordered to reha-
bacco combinations have been ordered
to rehabilitate, prevent others from
taking their chances along the same
lines. or from taking chances along
other lines?
Where viii Power Rest?
Reverting to his remedy the judge
continued:
tional or the state. shall be given the
power to apply the remedy? My an
aver Ia that. In the case of the big So
called trusts. such, for instance. as the
packers or the Standard Oil company,
the bulk of the raw materials is drawn
from states other than the company's
dpmicile. or the bulk of whose finish
cd product Is sold in states other than
the cor rpany's domicile, thereby bring.
ing their business into interstate COM
Merce. the principle l am urging
should be applied by the national gov
ernment. through such processes as
will make 1t practically compelling
that enterprises Of this kind organize
as corporations under the United
States laws.
ITO that extent, at least, l am for
the new nationalism. BY the hand of
a single sovereignty, and that the su-
preme sovereignty, can the principle.
II seems to me. be effectaully applied
to the big socalled trusts.
Would Oifferertiate Concerns.
But this does not mean that the
smaller manufacturing and trading
corporations in any given field of en-
terprise should be nationally incorpor-
ated. From these arises no monopoly
And where. among these smaller con-
Germs. combinations arise In unreason-
able restraint of trade, the Sherman
act as now interpreted would probably
be sufficient.
"But where should we run the line
of separation. you ask, between those
those to be nationally incorporated
and those left to the state: an how
separate those to whom a restriction
as to dividends is to be applied from
those to whom 1t Is not applied,
though nationally incorporated. My
answer Is that national Incorporation