The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-01

purpose of Furnishing such acts by sum-
mary procedure without the necessity
for the formidable array of witnesses
and the lengthy trials essential to es-
| tablish a general conspiracy under the
present act. But there is great neeo
for other constructive legislation of a
| helpful kind. Combination of capital
in great enterprises should be encour-
aged, if within the law, for everyone
must recognize that progress in mod
ern business is by effective comb1na-
ton of the means of production to the
point of greatest economy. 1t shoulo
be our purpose, therefore, to put large
interstate business enterprises acting
within the law on a basis of security
by offering them a federal corporation
law under which they may voluntarily
incorporate. Such an act is not an
easy one to draw in detail, but its
general outlines are clearly defined by
the two objects of such a law. one
is to secure for the public, through
competent government agency, such
close supervision and regulation of the
business transactions of the corpora
ton as to preclude violation OF the
antitrust and other laws to which the
business of the corporation must
square, and the other is to furnish to
business, thus Incorporated and law
fully conducted, the protection and
security which it must enjoy under
such a federal charter. With the fac
ulties conferred by such a charter cor
porations could do business in all the
states without complying with con-
f1icting exactionS of state legislatures
and could be sure of uniform taxation,
i. e., uniform with that imposed by
the state on state corporations in the
same business.
Prosecution of the Law. !
I think may affirm without contradic- |
ton that the prosecution of all persons |
reported to the department of justice to |
have violated the antitrust law has been |
carried on in this administration without |
fear or favor, and that everyone who has |
violated it, no matter how prominent or |
how great his influence, has been brought |
before the bar of the court either in civil
or criminal suit to answer the charge
It is the custom of those who find it |
to their political interest to do so to sneer
at, innocuouS, the DEGREES against the
American Tobacco company and against
the Standard Oil company, and the adj
ministration is condemned in the Demo-
cratic platform for consenting to a COM
promise in the Standard Oil decree was
entered by the circuit court, and then by
the supreme court, the prayer Of the
government contained in the original bill
filed in a previous administration. The
decree in the Tobacco case was reached
after a full discussion and entered by
the circuit court, consisting of four circuit
judges, S a proper decree, and the gov
eminent refused to appeal from 1T because
1t did not feel that it had grounds upon
which to base such appeal Both de-
crees working well. Both DEGREES have
introduced competition, the one into
branches of the tobacco business and the
other into branches of the oil business
They have not reintroduced ruinous COM
petition, but they have affected certain
prices in such way as to show the pres |.
ence of real competition. The division of
the two trusts by the DEGREES into several
companies was not expected to show i'm
mediate radical change in the business
It may take some years to show all the L
benefits of the dissolution, but the linn
itations of the DEGREES in those two cases
are so specific as to make altogether i'm
possible a resumption of the old COM
bination against which the DEGREES were
entered Even if experience shall show
the DEGREES to be inadequate, full oppor-
tunity in future litigation viii be afforded
to supply the defects.
The contest has been a long one. For
years the rule laid down in the statute
was ignored and laughed at, but the power