Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-09-09
CONFESSION OF
FAITH"
(Sixth Installment.)
judicial Control Called Failure

OOhNAOA NdhCu
1t is utterly hopeless to attempt to
control the trusts merely by the anti
trust law, or by any law the same
IN principle, no matter what the
notifications may be in detail. In
the first place, these great corpora
tions cannot possibly be controlled
merely by a succession of lawsuits.
me administrative branch of the
government must exercise such con-
troll. The preposterous failure of the
commerce Court has shown that only
damage comes from the effort to
substitute judicial for administrative
control of great corporations. In
the next place, a loosely drawn law
which promises to do everything
would reduce business to complete
ruin if it were not also drawn so as
to accomplish almost nothing.
AS construed by the democratic
platform the antitrust law would,
II it could be enforced, abolish ali
business of any size or any eff
cheney The promise thus to apply
and construe the law would undoubt-
edly be broken, but the mere fitful
effort thus to apply it would do no
good whatever, would accomplish
widespread harm, andI would bring
all trust legislation into contempt.
contrast what has actually been ac-
complished under theinterstate com
merce law with what has actually
been accomplished under the anti
trust law The first has, on the
whole, worked in a highly efficient
manner and achieved real and great
results, and it promises to achieve
even greater results (although |
firmly believe that if the power of
the commissioners grows greater, it
will be necessary to make them and
their superior, the president, even
more completely responsible to the
people for their acts). The second
has occasionally done good, has usu-
ally accomplished nothing, has gem
orally left the worst conditions Who'll
ly unchanged, and has been RESPONSE
BILE for a considerable amount of
downright and positive evil.
Administrative Plan Favored.
What is needed is the application
to all industrial concerns and all CO.
operating interests engaged in inter
state commerce in which there is
either monopoly or control of the
market of the principles on which
we have gone in regulating transpor-
tation concerns engaged in such
commerce. The antitrust law should
be kept on the statute books and
strengthened so as to make it genu-
inely and thoroughly effective
against every big concern tending to
monopoly or guilty of anti-social
practices. At the same time, a ma
tional industrial commission should
be created which should have COM
plete power to regulate and control
all the great industrial concerns en-
gagged in interstate business-which
practically means all of them in this
country. This commission should
exercise over these industrial con-
Germs like powers to those exercised
over the railways by the Interstate
| Commerce Commission, and over the
national banks by the controller OF
the currency, and additional powers
| if found necessary. The establish
ment of such a commission would
/ enable us to punish the individual
rather than merely the corporation,
just as we now do with banks, where
the aim of the government is, not to
close the bank, but to bring to JUS
tice personally any bank official who
has gone wrong. This commission
should deal with all the abuses of
the trusts-all the abuses such as
those developed by the government