Atlanta Georgian., 1912-07-30
Trust Evils Should Be Ade-
quately Punished
THE Trusts Should Be Regulated They
Should Not Be Destroyed"
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The Stanley committee of has spent years trying
find what should be done the has the
lame and mpoten conclusion corporations by
the Federal government recommended by Mr. Carnegie Judge
Gary and Others is semiSocialistic
beyond power by constitution congress
The idea that the great corporations must the end submit
reasonable and effective control by the public
teres not Mr. Carneges idea Judge Gary and
semi-Socialistc
The idea very definitely and briefly stated signed
tora by William Randolph years ago
June 6, 1899-when he said:
of produc-
ton The trust also great which raise the price
adequately punished
The trusts should
strOyed And. what is they be destroyed"
Three greatest United States have been con
victed the Federal past years the sins Mr.
Hearst predicted thirteen years ago. namely raising prices
commodities robbng weaker rivals copng legislatures op
pressing the public These evils universally admitted
But they have been adequately punished The punitive
of justice has been be weak The
anr law has been robbed Of its sting of dis
solution from the highest court in the United States has de-
pryed the offending trust either of its profits its dsmembered
parts 1t has been found impossible to unscrambe eggo
Mr. Morgan happy phrase the omeet has been divided into
parts and the the market value of the whole has
been increased
Chairman Stanley idea of limiting the power of trusts by put
ting arbitrary limit the amount of business that any
poaton shall do is not practicable and not 1t of Mr.
Byan fanatic ads suggested by him years
and discarded by everybody silly and finally abandoned by
just reasonable to put an arbitrary limit on the
number of miles which railroad shall operate the amount of
traffic which it shall haul
Formerly railroads in max
ing the journey from New York to Chicago Men and goods
carried quicker cheaper and better by railroad than
they possibly could by eleven Freight carried long distances
the United States at ton rate lower than anywhere
else the world and this due great railway the
genius of concentration cooperation and volume of traffic
undreamed of few single telephone company
stretches from the Atlantic the Pacific Although there
Vulnerable independent telephone
single company does than half the telephone business the
country 1t is possible to talk its wires from New York Den
yer, 2,100 miles
According Stanley foolish 30 per idea this
would not be acquired by the reasonable and
benecent stepbu should be split many and every
would different
convenient
But every realizes that the corporation has become pow
erful that nothing less than the itself it
control it, Chairman
powerful than all the people together Congress
the whole people The constitution the control
of interstate That control has already been extended
the railroads Even that right ubboy contested and siren
uousy denied for by like Stanley but it
universally conceded
But single corporations greater than rail
affect the public interests closely than railroad
The largest railroad system the United States does
only about onehrd the business of the United States Steel Cor
poraton in good times
We sorry that Chairman Stanley long
scentious work should have led him such weak concusonto
such contradictory and extraordinary ideas that
hand has regulate interstate
poratons but the other hand has put limit
the size Of corporations and the of business permitted be
done In his first conclusion Mr. Stanley bettes congress- the
second he magnfes its powers beyond all reason.
Mr. Stanley mdersmates organization
sodation He oveesmate the of congress thinking
that it do what ought do and do
Irresistible natural forces and tendencies behind
growth OF the corporations To that these irresistible forces
stopped by of the Legislature of
with an act of God
The trusts which already powerful than any
they be controlled public by people acting
through congress-