Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-12-21
WOULD AMEND the LAW
TO MAKE IT EFFECTIVE
rsiis Union lsasus Club II. 1. op-
posed 20 government Regulation %.
cause Il 10 Socialism - Composition
b The Rule Of Lifs-Favors Bus;.
nsss Court.

The Iowa progressive leader scored
alike those business men who attributed
financial depression to political agita-
ton and tariff tinkering, and those
who urge that the Sherman act should
not be enforced. In defending the
character of American legislators, he
expressed confidence in business men,
but he assured his audience that If
there were demagogs among men in
political office. there were quite as
many among men in business.
| senator Cummins asserted the Sher-
man law needed some amendment as
to definitions and a tribunal to which
business men could appeal for an opin-
ion as to the legality of acts which
they proposed to undertake Other
wise, he thought it an embodiment Of
I wisdom.
| Says Monopoly 10 .Abhorrsnt.
He admitted there was third pos
sibility to competition by the govern
ment direction Of monopoly. But he
said monopoly was 50 abhorrent to the
spirit Of America that 1t could be elm
s1zaIc0 without argument
Thru one Of these three ways, COM
petition, monopoly, or government reg
ulation, the wealth Of this country must
be distributed among those who pro-
duce It," continued the senator. Com
petition il and always has been the rule
Of life. Il now controls, and always has
controlled the lives OF men. I believe
It always will control.
Monopoly, q system in which men
can get together in associations or ag-
creations and arbitrarily fix prices, is
% intolerable that no free people ever
has submitted to It.
Government regulation means Soc
ialism. For whenever the government
undertakes to say corporation shall
have or 6 or 10 per cent on the
capital invested. we have abandoned
competition and fallen into the phil.
osophy Of Karl MARI.
Defends Sherman Law.
I'VE already have adopted social
ism In the case Of public utilities-the
railways for instance. do not intend
to discuss these enterprises and their
regulation. But in 30 far as private in
dustry IL concerned. we have had since
1880 law forbidding the restraint Of
trade and forbidding monopoly in the
United States.
THE soul Of the antitrust law was
borrowed from our ancestors. The
principle IL 200 years old. We ought
not to condemn an administration for
its endeavor to enforce that law.
mo ono can accuse me Of being
partial to the present administration"
the speaker continued. Il hold no such
relation to 1t. But know what JUS
tice 10. I know that as American citi-
zens you do not desire the president
and the attorney general to abandon
the enforcement Of law which they
have taken their oaths to enforce.
Favoro ~0uUiness Court"
II do not mean the Sherman law Is
perfect It is twenty years old. Business
has changed since it was drawn. We
need some changes Of definition to fit
changed conditions. We need a trib-
unal to which business men who have
q consolidation or a business plan in
mind could 60 to learn from the best
minds of the nation whether or not
the thing they propose Is forbidden.
ut isn't fair men should have to wait
until they are before the supreme court
to know whether they are right or
not