Norwich bulletin., 1911-12-06

curity against successful prosecutions for violations of the law as would be practical or wise.
 Such q bureau or commission might well be invested also with the duty already referred to of aiding courts in the dissolution and recreation of trusts within the law. It should be an executive tribunal of the dignity and power of the comptroller of the cur rency or the interstate commerce com mission. which now exercises supervis- ory power over important classes of corporations under federal regulation.
 The drafting of such a federal in- corporation law would offer ample op- portunity to prevent many manifest evils in corporate management today, including responsibility of control in the hands of the few who are not the real owners.
 incorporation Voluntary.
 recommend that the federal char ters thus to be granted shall be volun- tary, at least until experience justifes mandatory provisions The benefit to be derived from the operation of great businesses under the protection of such d tAttlAtt dLliaCL Aii WnO aAH anxious to keep within the lines of the law. Other large combinations that fail to take advantage of the federal incorporation will not have a right to complain if their failure is ascribed to unwillingness to submit their transac- tions to the careful official scrutiny. competent supervision and publicity attendant upon the enjoyment of such 3 charter.
 Only Supplemental Legislation Needed.
 The opportunity thus suggested for federal incorporation, it seems to me, is suitable constructive legislation needed to facilitate the squaring of great industrial enterprises to the rule of action laid down by the antitrust law. This statute as construed by the supreme court must continue to be the line of distinction for legitimate busi- ness. It must be enforced unless we are to banish indfvidualism from all business and reduce it to one common system of regulation or control of prices like that which now prevails with respect to public utilities and which when applied to all business would be a long step toward state so- cialism-
 Importance of the Anti trust Act.
 The antitrust act is the expression of the effort of a freedom loving peo- pie to preserve equality of opportunity. It is the result of the confident deter imitation of such a people to maintain their future growth by preserving un- controlled and unrestricted the enter prise of the individual, his industry, h .ss N frf nd hfa Independent courage.
 For twenty years or more this stat ute has been upon the statute book. All knew its general purpose and ap- proved. Many of it's vioIators were cynical over it's assumed impotence. It seemed impossible of enforcement. Slowly the mills of the courts ground, and only gradually did the majesty of the law assert itself. Many of it's tatesmen-authors died before it be- came living force, and they and 4oth- CTS saw the evil grow which they had hoped to destroy. Now it's efficacy is seen; now it's power is heavy; now it's object is near achievement Now we hear the call for it's repeal on the plea that it interferes with business pros- perity, and we are advised in most general lCEAuS now by EoAlC OAAAsA H'.&AN ute and In some. other way the evil we are just stamping out can be cured if we only abandon this work of twen- ty' years and try another experiment. for another term of years.
 It is said that the act has notpdoDe good Can this be said in the-'face~of the effect of the Northern3 Securities decree? That decree was fin no way so drastic or inlIibitive fin detH1l as ei- ther the Standard oil deeree.i or the tobacco decree. But. did fl not%stop for all time tbes then powerful move ment toward the control of all the railroads of the country in single hand? Such 6, one man power could not have been a heaithfu1' influence fin the republic, even though sezspctsed under the genaraf asuperviafonsI comnrissfon.s J Do we desire to makeisuch ruthless and monopol1es slawfulf When, all energies are directed, not to-. ward the rednctinnaofsthe cost of pro- '- duction for the public beneit hy a healfhful competitims but toward new ways and means. for making per1na- nent in a few hands, tho absolute con- troI of the conditions and prices pre- rafiing in the whole field of industry, then individual enterprise eand effort will be paralyzed and the spirit of freedom win besdead.
 VIM H. TAFT.
 The White House. Dec. 5. 1911.
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