Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-02-23

guarding the interests of the people as
a whole.
SAYS PROTECT BUSINESS.
"The middle-sized business men form
an element of strength which is of lit
orally incalculable value to the nation.
The average business man of this type
is, as a rule, a leading citizen of his
community, foremost in everything that
tells for it's betterment, a man whom
his neighbors look up TO and respect
yet, nowadays many men of this
kind, when they come to make neces-
sary trade agreements with one an
other find themselves in danger of be-
coming unwilling transgressors of the
law, and are at loss to know what the
law forbids and what it permits. This
is all wrong There should be a fixed
governmental policy, a policy which
shall clearly define and punish wrong
doing, and shall give in advance full
Information to any man as to just what
he can and just what he cannot legally
and properly do.
''It is absurd and wicked to treat the
deliberate lawbreaker as on an exact
par with the man eager to obey the law
whose only desire is to find out from
some competent governmental authority
what the law is and then live up to IT..
1t is absurd to endeavor to regulate
business in the interest of the public
by means of long-drawn law suits with
out any accompaniment of administra-
tive control and regulation, and without
any attempt to discriminate between
the honest man who has succeeded in
business because of rendering a service
to the public and the dishonest man
who has succeeded in business by
cheating the public.
GOVERNMENT CONTROL. ..-
'It is imperative to exercise over big
business a control and supervision
which is unnecessary as regards small
business. 1 do not believe in making
mere size of and by itself criminal.
The mere fact of size, however. does
unquestionably carry the potentiality of
such grave wrong-doing that there
should be by law provision made for
the strict supervision and regulation of
these great industrial concerns doing
an interstate business much as we now
regulate the transportation agencies
which are engaged in interstate bust
ness.
'aThe antitrust law does good in so
far as it can be invoked against COM
binations which really are monopolies or
which restrict production or which arti-
ficially raise prices. But in so far as its
workings are uncertain, or as it threat
ems corporations which have not been
guilty of anti-social conduct, 1T does
harm. Moreover, it cannot by itself &C
complish more than a trifing part of
the governmental regulation of big
business which is needed. The nation
and the states must cooperate in this
matter.
Among the states that have enter
ed this field Wisconsin has taken a
L, oil In Ia
Toilette a number of practical workers
and thinkers in Wisconsin have turned
that state into an experimental labora-
tory of wise governmental action In AID
of social and industrial justice. They
have initiated the kind of progressive
government which means not merely
the preservation of true democracy, but
the extension of the principle Of true
democracy into industrialism as well as
into politics.
THE PEOPLE AND BUSINESS.
"Our demand is that big business
give the people a square deal and that
the people give a square deal to any
man engaged in big business who hon
estly endeavors to do what is right
and proper. On the other hand, any
corporation, big or little, which has
gained its position by unfair methods
and by interference with the rights of
others, which has raised prices or linn
tied output in improper fashion and
been guilty of demoralizing and corrupt
practices, Should not only be broken up,
but It should be made the business or
some competent governmental body by
constant supervision to see that it
does not come together again, save I'M
der such strict control as to insure the
community against all danger of reps
etition of the bad conduct.
The chief trouble with big business
has arisen from the fact that big bust
ness has so often refused to abide by
the principle OF the square deal; tn
opposition which I personally have en-
countered from big business has IN
every case arisen not because / did not
give a square deal but because 1 did.
All business into which the element
of monopoly in any way or degree en-
ters, and where 1t proves in practices
impossible totally to eliminate this ele-
ment of monopoly, should be carefully
supervised, regulated and controlled D.
governmental authority; and such con-
troll should be exercised by administre-
tive, rather than by judicial officers
No effort should be made to destroy a
big corporation merely because it is big,
merely because it has shown itself 4