The Washington times., 1911-10-28
THE LESSON THAT 1896
TEACHES TO 1911

A short time before the last adjourn.
ment of Congress, Senator Clapp, chair
man of the upper house Committee on
Interstate Commerce, appointed sub
comittee, and the Senate by resolution
gave this subcommittee authority to
conduct extensive hearings on the
great set of problems which have
grown up about business and the Gov
ernment. The subcommittee chair
man is Senator Cummins, and its ses-
sions will begin in a few weeks in
Washington.
At the time the committee was au-
thorized, the intention was to have a
broad consideration of the very funda-
mentals of Government policy toward
business. Shall the Government stand
squarely OH its present policy, declared
by the Sherman act, that competition
is to be maintained, That is what
Senator Cummins conceived to be the
large question which his subcommittee
was going to>consider. He planned to
invite the leading economists and the
most experienced men of practical af
fairs to appear and illumine the prob
lem with their opinions and their
workaday knowledge.
The sittings of this committee will
instantly assume new and larger
significance, in view of the Govern.
ment's action against the greatest cor
poration in the world. That action
will require several years before it can
reach the stage of final determination
Perhaps it will require several more
after a decree of court shall be Sc
cured; for the Tobacco trust decree,
when finally issued, appears likely to
establish new status whose mainte-
nance for considerable period will be
enjoined by the court.
Attorney General Wickersham has
intimated the hope that there may be
an adjustment, in the Steel case, by
negotiation and agreement, which will
satisfy all parties without necessity
for carrying the suit to its conclusion.
Certainly everybody concerned with
the interest of business, which is
rather the most engrossing occupation
in this world, will hope that this may
be borne out by developments.
1t is increasingly apparent that some
modification must be effected in the
Governments policy toward business.
Mr.. Cummins, though a leader of the
most radical wing of progressivism,
has insisted strongly on this. He is a
firm believer that competition is the
real solution, and that the mainte-
nance of effective competition is pos
sible through legal process. But he
comedies that something more than,
or different from, the present anti
trust act is necessary. He is COM
mitted strongly to the idea that bust
ness ought to know, more definitely
than it can now know, what is lawful
and what is not.
This series of problems must have
consideration in the next few years,
until conclusive governmental policy
shall have been laid down and shall
have so far commended itself, by its
results, as to make apparent that it is
final. Fifteen years ago this country
spent year talking about money. In
the end, it voted for the single gold
standard. Before that long debate, it
had rather imagined that it favored
free silver, or bimetallism, or some
thing else. 1t has seemingly been
committed to .bimetallismr in its pub.
lie law. But it changed its mind, and
today the question of monetary stand.
ard is fixed probably for all time.
1t is not too much to hope that ma.
tional purpose will yet be crystallized
into just as conclusive a program for
establishment of the relations between
Government and great business enter
prise. If it is done, that disturbing
and difficult issue may be filed away
in the archives, and the country may
go ahead attending to business, with
reasonable assurance that it will not
be committing a felony when it thinks
it is doing the legitimate thing.