The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-12-19
OFFICIAL COUNTY PAPER
ANOTHER %PooH-BAH.

ANOTHER ROOH-BAH.
The supreme court of the United
Estates has decided that the merger
aDf the Southern and Union Pacific
Railroads il illegal and has ordered
Dc dissolved. Thereupon 1t is herald
ssed that the government has won a
sssgreat victory. We have heard those |
setories before. No one anticipates
'stilat because of the decision the two
~kraiiroads will begin violently COM
gpeting with each other.-.No n ex-
Spects a reduction of rates because
AlAe court has said, with considerable
Sznlaiyete, that even II 1t cannot COM
ssIpel competition, IL can prevent a conf
SSbination that makes competition i'm
possible.
The court unwittingly has defined
THE limitations OF the relief 1t has
zp0wer to grant under the Sherman
antitrust law. 1t car say that corpor-
ations engaged in the same industry
cannot formally agree to stop com
petiting with each other, but it can
mot say that they shall and must
really compete with each other. So
the Hartman merger decision means
fn0thing at all except a new job for
s~theSlawyers to find some other way
by which the roads can be operated
zsof such a decision was revealed in the
courts conclusion that the anthracite
scOal trust could not be disturbed, so
long as the owners OF it maintained
the dctton OF two serarate corpora
Etions. one to mine the coal and the
sotherto haul 1t to market.
1T ID next to idiotic to seriously
maintain at this day that such anti
TRUST decisions as that in the Harri-
man merger, when the government
won every contention, is going 20
provide even a beginning in the So
linton OF the trust problem. BY only
one method an the giant combina-
lions Of the country be prevented
from using their power to extort nn-
reasonable prices for their products
and; this is by actual regulation.
In the case of railroads, any high
school boy who has studied econom-
Sics knows that there can be no such
thing az competition. What passes
Eas such is simply q trade war, and is
ascertain to terminate as it is that
IL is simply a contest of endurance.
This Is because q railroad compSny's
line canno be paralelled without
FEt<Hrf EF1&t2Hy
doubling the cost of the plant so that
the same amount OF traffic has twice
thesmaintenance to support.
The matter of railroad regulation
III q forgotten problem in Europe,
where it is recognized that the rates
must be fixed and fixed in considers
tion Of the rights Of both the shipper
and the carrier. The railroad COM
panies ought to be guaranteed a
reasonable return on their invest
.ment, because of the COLOSSAL
amount Of money required to con-
struct and equip them. The shippers
Eare entitled to rates that would pro-
duce no more than such a reasonable
return ON the actual Investment be-
canse to allow more encourages VIC
iouR gambling in high, finance and
imposes q tax upon the whole coun-
Inv for which nothing is given in re
turn.
Thus it is that the approval by
the House Of q bill authorizing the
physical valuation of the railroads
aof the country is far more epocha
thanAthe decision of the United State.
supreme court in the Hartman mer
ger case.
@>s<@
MR.. REID.
Whitelaw Reid, ambassador to .Grea'