The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-12-28
SHALL THE TRUSTS Be !
CURBED OR BE KILLED?|
Senate Committee on Inter-
state Commerce Wres-
ting With Question,

w !: :7 ss,. we =, 30 ',,, with the tn,
regulate or to prohibit and
prosecute them?
Can free competition be restored to
the Industries of America?
Shall the government regulate prices,
limit the capital of corporations or Gle
galize limited monopolies?'
These are some Of the farreaching
questions that committee of the Unit
ed States senate is now putting to the
leading men in the Industrial, fnan-
cial, legal and labor worlds.
The trust problem has seized con-
sress in grip that is not to be shaken.
The sporadic attempts at new trust
legislation that have been made dur
ing the last few years have given way
to systematic, exhaustive investiga-
ton of the whole problem, begun in
washington and which is to continue
until there is before the senate such
synopsis of the views of all trust
had
What promises to be the most i'm
portant investigation since the Sher-
man law was enacted in 1890 is being
conducted by the senate committee on
interstate commerce. 1t is not an in
vestigation Of any one or two trusts
nor an attempt to make capital out of
the crisis that has developed through
the dissolution of the Standard Oil
company and the American Tobacco
company.
Sane Ideas Welcomed.
It is rather sober, we'll conceived
plan to find out all that every impor-
tant trust expert in the United States
knows. Any man Of recognized ac-
quaintance with the subject of trust
regulation, management or prosecu-
ton or any student of the subject from
an economic standpoint is welcome be-
fore the senate committee in Washing
ton, where the "school of trust con-
troll is in progress.
]. Pierpont Morgan, Ebert II. Gary,
George w. Perkins. Andrew Carnegie,
Samuel Untermyer, Seth Low, Sam
uel Gompers and many others whose
names are associated with the Organi-
cation, management or regulation of
big corporations or who are active stu
dents of the commercial and industrial
conditions that have arisen as a result
OF corporation growth are among those
invited to appear before the senate
committee. Many of them have agreed
to give their views as to what the gov
eminent shall do to more effectively
control combinations. and some have
already appeared.
1t has become apparent thus early in
the hearings that any amendment to
the Sherman law itself will be yigor-
ously opposed. That law is recognized
as the great policeman of the highways
of commerce and industry The trou-
BILE with its enforcement in the past has
been the difficulty Of telling just how
far it's rigid and severe language was
to apply.
1t has been strong enough to break
the Standard Oil and American Tobac-
co companies, to force reorganiza-
tion of the International Harvester
company and the United States Steel
corporation and to give promise of a
change in the methods of many of the
other great combinations of capital.
The trouble is not with the Sherman
law. but with the lack Of legislation to
"back up" that law.
The Great Question.
is there any legitimate form Of COM
bination that the government should
recognize and permit? If so how shall
it be safeguarded and regulated? is the
question the committee wants answer
ed
Cannot some law be made that will
permit corporations to know, without
the terrors Of an antitrust suit, wheth-
CT or not they are within the law in
extending and developing their COM
MERGE among the different states? The
committee wants advice on this and is
getting it from many quarters.
Shall the government work with the
corporations through a trade commits
sion, or shall it lay down certain laws,
tell the corporations to toe the mark
and then go after them with the Sher
man law when they fail to do so?
There is apparently clean division
between the latter two propositions.
The members Of the committee them
selves are divided on the subject, but
not more so than the witnesses who ap.
pear to state their views of needed
trust legislation. Samuel Untermyer
urged trade commission that should
pass upon the charters Of the corpora
tons, prescribe the conditions they
must meet, see to it that they did not
secure a monopoly. but give them the
opportunity to make 'limited trade
agreements
enforce the antitrust law against
them until they face ruin, then give
them the right to make agreements
that will enable them to do fairly
profitable business" was the sub