The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-11-17
NO REAL PUNISHMENT.

suit is lamentable from the standpoint
NO REAL PUNISHMENT.
"The decision Of the circuit court,
II allowed to stand, means that the
tobacco trust has merely been obliged
to change its clothes, that none Of the
real offenders have received any real
punishment.
Surely mismarrias- Of justice is
not too strong terlzs : apply to such
result when considt. 81 in connec-
ton with what the supreme court said
Of this trust.
'The effort to prohibit all combine
tons, good or bad, is bound to fail,
and ought to fail: when made, it
merely means that some of the worst
combinations are not checked and
that honest business is checked. Our
business as an incident Of strangling
combinations, but to regulate big cor
porations in a thoroughgoing and eff
fective fashion, so as to help legiti-
mate business as an incident to thor
oughly and completely safeguarding
the, interests of the people as a whole.
NOT SATISFACTORY.
Few will dispute the fact that the
present situation is not satisfactory
and cannot be put on a permanently
satisfactory basis unless we put an end
to the period of cropping and declare
for fixed policy, a policy which shall
clearly define and punish wrong doing.
which shall put stop to the iniqui-
ties done in the name of business, but
which shall be strict equity to BUSH
ness. We demand that big business
give the people a square deal; in re-
turn We must insist that when any
one engaged In big business honestly
endeavors to do right he shall himself
be given square deal; and the first
all a%ar LII,
deal is to give him in advance full in
formation as to just what he can and
what he cannot legally and probably
do.
Not only should any such corpora
ton which has gained its position by
unfair methods and by interference
with the rights Of others, by democrat
izing and corrupt practices, in short,
by sheer baseness and wrong-doing,
be broken up, but it should be made
the business of some administrative
governmental body by constant super
vision to see that 1t does not come
together again, save under such strict
control as shall insure the community
against all repetition of the bad con-
duct-and it should never be permit
ted thus to assemble its parts as long
as these parts are under the control
experience has shown that these men
are, from the standpoint of the people
at large, unfit to be trusted with the
power implied in the management of
a large corporation.
But nothing Of Importance is gained
by breaking up a huge interstate and
international industrial organization
which has not offended otherwise than
by Its size, into a number of small
concerns without any attempt to regu-
late the way in which those concerns
as whole shall do business. Nothing
is gained by depriving the American
nation of good weapons wherewith to
fight in the great field of international
Industrial competition.
To sum up, then, it is practically
impossible, and If possible, it would
be mtschievous and undesirable to try
to break up all combinations merely
because they are large and successful
and put the country back into the
middle Of the eighteenth century con-
| ditions of unregulated competition be-
tween small and weak business con-
Germs. Such an effort represents not
progressivenes, but an unintelligent
| though doubles well meaning toryism
Moreover. the effort to administer
law merely by lawsuits and court de-
cisions Is bound to end in signal
failure, and meanwhile to be attended
with delays and uncertainties, and to
put premium upon legal sharp prac-
tice. Such an effort does not ade-
works great harm to the innocent
Moreover It entirely fails to give the
publicity which is one of the best by
products of the system Of control
by administrative officials; publicity
which is not only good in itself, but
furnishes the data for whatever fur
Their action may be necessary. We
| need to formulate Immediately and
definitely a policy which in dealing
| with big corporations that behave
| themselves and which contain no men
ace save what is necessarily political
in any corporation which is of great
| size and very well managed, shall aim
not at their destruction, but at their
| regulation and supervision, at once
| that the government shall conrol them
in such fashion as amply to safeguard
| the interests of the whole public in
Guiding producers and consumers and
LAW SHOULD BE CLEAR.
This control should, If necessary,
| be pushed in extreme cases to the
| point of exercising control over mo-
| nopoly prices as rates on railways are
now controlled; although this is not q
| power that should be used when it is
be clear. unambiguous, certain, so that
| honest men may not find that unwit-
tingly they have violated it. In short,
| our aim should be, not to destroy, but
effectively and in thoroughgoing fash
| ion to regulate and control in the pub
| lie interest the great instrumentalities
of modern business which it is de-
/ structive of the general welfare of the
community to destroy and which new
ertheless it is vitality necessary to that
! general welfare to regulate and con-
| troll. Competition will remain as a
very important factor when once we
have destroyed the unfair business
methods, the criminal interference