Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-07-21

the participation of the consumer OF
the general public-that is without
those who have had to pay the Dill
having any voice in fixing the price
In this view, it is certainly not unrea'
sonable that the purchasing public
should desire to have some part in
determining the price it is to pay
in like manner as has been recognized
to be just with respect to the cost OF
transportation.
eff there could be any assurance
that the free play of competition
would be assured and the natural
price resulting from the unrestrained
operation of supply and demand
maintained, then no governmental SUI
.pervision of business-beyond occa-
sional prosecutions for violations of
the Sherman law-would be neces-
sary But the habits formed through
years OF following system are not
easily shaken off, and the artificial
forms of organization made necessary
by the conflicting laws of many states,
with those of the nation, will always
! present a borderland of doubt, which
| will furnish on the one hand oppOrtu'
| mites for those who wish to violate
| the law to do so with some show OF
| justification; and on the other to per-
| pick those who are sincerely DESTROYS
of keeping the law, but by reason OF
the completely and conflict of differ
ent state laws find it difficult to do so
without seeming to run counter to the
antitrust laws. For the effectual reg
IL of Of
supervision of a federal commission
is certainly desirable, if not absolutely
necessary.
In theory it would seem that such
a commission should have some power
over prices but the practical difficult
ties in the way of so exercising such
power as not to inflict greater evil
than that it is intended to cure are
so great as perhaps to be insurmount-
able"
Mr.. Wickersham implied that fed
eral incorporation act while it might
offer some difficulties, would help to
lay the axe at the root of the trust
evil
The existing system, whereby
every state charters corporations
without the slightest regard to other
states or to the nation, empowered
to roam at Will-sO far as their crea-
tor is copcerned-but subject to any
restriction or condition which any
other state into which they may desire
to 60 in carrying on their business,
chooses to impose, naturally led to
demand for authority in one corpora
%o11 hold II ~,
other, in order that the business of
corporation organized in one state
might be carried. on in another state,
without subjecting the parent CON-
pany and its entire capital and corpo-
rate organization to the laws of the
latter.
"Probably no one thing has done
more to facilitate restraint of trade
and the growth of monopoly than the
departure from the early rule of law
that one corporation cannot own
stock in another. That departure was
the most banevul result of the let us
alcne' policy in dealing with corpora
tons to which the country abandoned
itself during the last 80 years of the
Nineteenth century. The conditions,
which have resulted from the exer-
else of the expressly conferred power
in one corporation to take and hold
stock in another present the most seri-
Gus obstacles to the Elective dealing
with the trust problem.
whenever competitors have been
excluded by unfair means and a very
large part of the commerce absorbed,
by particular interest, the machin-
cry by which such result has been
accomplished will be found on exam
ination to be the control of various
rate stock holdings.
IF congress should enact that no
corporation engaged in interstate COM
merce shall hereafter acquire any
stock of any other corporation so en-
gagged and that unless all such cOrpo-
rations engaged in interstate COM
merce within some specified period,
they should We prohibited from carry
ing on interstate commerce until
they did so dispose of such stocks, the
axe would indeed be laid at the root
OF the trust evil; but justice to the
innocent holders of securities issued
to the public based on pledged stocks
acquired and held pursuant to express
legal authority would require consid-
GRAFTON to be given to their case and
such exceptions to be made from che
prohibition as might be necessary to
their protection as might be neces-
sary to their protection. These acts
OF justice might seriously interfere
with the enactment of legislation ef-
fective to the accomplishment of the
main purpose in view.
Business men of integrity are nat
urally DESTROYS of avoiding violations
OF law. The construction of the Sher-
man law originally contended for
would have condemned them for any
concerted action which imposed a re-
stralnt on trade. The more enlight.
ened view which has been established
by the supreme court limits the pro-
bltion to undue observation-disclosures
which are not the result of normal
business methods but which are in
tended to accomplish, or have for
their direct and primary purpose in
reference with the natural course of
trade and commerce along the states
or with foreign countries. Yet even
within these rules there is an area of
activity where cooperation and asso-