The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-12-14
Attorney General Would Have
Bureau Of Corporations
Supervise Trusts
SUMS UP BUSINESS FOR 1911
Enforcement Of Law Confronted
by Economic Problems
Wants Authority to Bring Action
Against Corporations In Any
Part OF the Country.

Washington. Dec. 14.-Pursuini
President Tafts recommendation tha
an executive bureau be created to su.
pervisc corporations chartered under
ia federal Incorporation act Attorney
General Wickersham. in his annua
report submitted to congress today
suggests that the Bureau of Corpora
tions be raised to that dignity, even
I'm the absence of the proposal federal
incorporation statute.
! This branch of the Department of
| Commerce and Labor the Attorney
General urges, should be brought into
closer relation with his department
and adds that ii might well be avail
ed of as the nucleus for an adminis-
trative board under whose supervision
consultations or mergers for lawful
purposes might be formed"
In enforcing the Sherman antitrust
law the Attorney General points out
that the Department of Justice and
the courts are confronted by economic.
rather than legal. problems when 1t
comes to working out methods of dis
Indignation after a corporation has
been declared an Illegal combination.
The department enlisted the assistance
Of the Bureau of Corporations i'm the
dissolution of the tobacco trust. and
II would be of great value to the legal
branch of the government Mr.. Wick
ersham says, if the functions of the
bureau should be so enlarged that It
could be called upon officially to make
Investigations and report it's conclu-
sions with respect to plans for the
voluntary or enforced disintegration OF
monopolistic combinations.
4,2o4,115 Fines Collected.
The attorney general reviews the
record of year of intense activity i'm
federal prosecutions and points out
that the Department of Justice finan-
cially sustained itself as the result of
the contribution of $4,204,115 to the
United States Treasury I'm the shape of
fines collected, customs duties recov-
cries, etc. The-expense of the depart
ment including the office of the attor-
neys and assistants throughout the
country aggregated $3,224,773.
In a comprehensive review of the
antitrust prosecutions. the Attorney
General shows that the seventeen an
thrust civil suits pending at the be-
ginning of the last fiscal year were |
augmented by six additional actions |
while the eleven criminal prosecutions |
under the same statute were increased |
by twenty-thre more prosecutions
Turing the last fiscal year.
Eight civil suits and a similar num-
ler of criminal trials were brought
o conclusion during the year. In four
# the civil prosecutions judgments
we're rendered i'm favor of the United
states, while three were lost and one
vas discontinued Four convictions
we're secured until the criminal clause
# the statute during the year and four
asses were either quashed or discon-
inued
Cases Still Pending.
Declaring that he appreciates that
ubic interest i'm the Sherman anti
rust law was "even greater" than
{ was at the date of his last report,
he Attorney General set forth the
cases as being prosecuted
r pending for final settlement:
"The powder trust; the might rid
r" cases: United States steel Cor
'oration; cotton corner; alleged towing
beef packers; Southern Pa
ific merger; bituminous coal COM
ination; naval stores suit: bathtub
trust; lumber trust; milk trust;
vail paper combination; sugar trust;
rams Atlantic steamship pool, maga-
inc trust; shoe machinery trust;
ombination of coal roads; elevator
uit i'm oklahoma, and kindling wood
trust"
Emphasizing his satisfaction with
he decree of the New York Circuit
'ourt I'm the tobacco trust dissolution,
he Attorney General has this to say
f independent tobacco interests who
ave criticised the plan of dislntegra-
ion: D
The Tobacco Disintegration.
Competitors OF the existing COM
ination were eager to compel the i'm
ostion OF terms or conditions of the
which would have made
solvent successful business readjust-
lent impossible. would have brought
bout a receivership Of the property
nd forced judicial sales. resulting I'm
reat financial loss. not only to those
Interested in the combination, hut to
he business interests of the country
{ large. and i'm the end would have
enefited only the very individuals who
ad been dominant in tho formation
the combination. as they are pos
essed OF means ample enough to profit
y the ruin which would have followed.
l my opinion, the plan which has been
Continued ON paga INixa