Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1912-02-24
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
W|CKERSHAM ON
OF THE SHERMAN
Attorney General Declares
There Is No Occasion
For Its Amendment.

LFrom an article by george w. WICK
ershan,, attorney general of the United
States, In the Century Magazine for
February. Copyright, 1912, by tho
Century eompany.1
w IsCoNTENT with the Sherman
antitrust law and its enforce
ny ment by this administration is
not nearly so widespread as Is
popularity supposed. 1t is reasonable
assumption that the majority OF the
people who are discontinued with the
Sherman law and with its enforcement
are the stockholders and others inter-
ested In those corporations and com
binations charged with its violation.
The people who will most benefit from
the enforcement OF the law are the
great army of consumers who have
been purchasing the products of these
corporations,
The purpose of the law Is not to de-
stroy industries. The real purpose of
the Sherman law is to compel fair
trade, to protect the average business
man from injury due to unfair meth
DDS Of competition. It is meant to
keep the highways of commerce open
to all, big and little, rich and poor, on
the same terms. Therein lies its great
est ethical value.
The purpose of the Sherman act is
to prevent undue combination and cen
tralization of power, and therefore in
issuing their DEGREES the courts have
merely compelled the combinations
against which they have been directed
TO resolve themselves into their in
tegral parts. The property of the
stockholders remains. It is as capable
Of production and OF earning dividends
as ever.
There is, Of course, some genuine dis
content with the Sherman law, but 1
suspect most of it arises not SO much
from any real uncertainty as to its
meaning as from a realization of that
meaning. R@At 5 EI
Need Of q Check to Monopoly.
think every thoughtful person will
agree that the Sherman act or some
equally effective statute was absolute
ly necessary to check the growing cen
tralisation in very few hands Of the
vast industries Of the United States.
~ WINS khC ouhBCi VI bAuS NChtAoAAA0
ton which the leaders saw in 1890,
when they framed and enacted the
Sherman law. Slowly, but irresistibiy,
the construction Of the statute has
been widened, until now it is demon
strated to be adequate to effect that
great result.
One of the results which the Sher-
man law will accomplish, which must
be beneficial to a large class, is to drive
out the middleman where the condi-
lions are such that the middleman is
not the natural economic result Of the
operation of the laws of trade.
1t must be remembered that in all
this discussion nothing will really suit
the men who have built up the great
trusts and whose interests have been
in the monopolization Of great lines of
industry but some method of contin-
uing in the future, with greater or less
Immunity from interference, the same
power and control which they have
enjoyed in the past. 3 st
81 How to Eliminate Uncertainty.
In my opinion. the only effective way
to eliminate all genuine uncertainty is
through federal incorporation act
containing provisions adequate to meet
the situation. Congress has recognize
cd its power by asserting the right to
interfere and control and to that ex'
tent to regulate the conduct OF inter.
state commerce by declaring what CON
tracts. combinations, monopolies, etc.
shall not be entered into. believe II
is time for It to recognize its duty to
provide proper vehicles for the con.
duct of that commerce, so as to make
unnecessary the combinations 1t has
prohibited.
In the past congress has left the
whole law of association--the law OF
cooperation under corporate form--tc
the states. This has necessarily led
TO the holding corporation whereby the
control over an industry, Through com
paratively small capital, can be exer
cised with ever widening sweep and
virtually without bounds. Congress
should provide FOR the formation OF
corporations, which, after all, is moth
ang more than to regulate the rules
whereby men may associate themselves
In the conduct OF Interstate commerce
with limited liability and with pro
vision for the transfer of their inter
ests In whole or in part without az
fecting the continued existence Of the
association.
Congress- should provide for the crea
tion OF such bodies, Should prescribe
The. rules under which they may trans
act their business and should protect
them in the. transaction of that bust
(, ness in accordahce with those rules
Then and not until then will the prob
lem be effectively solved. Such a law
would remove all the scandal OF corpo
rate organization, of inflated capitaii
zation, Of deceit of the public through
lack of information or dissemination
OF misinformation and would thus er
able the business of the country to 81
conducted on safe and sane basis
The. federal corporation, being crea
ture Of the federal law. would be en-
tirely subject to federal control. and
Y from time to time as tendencies deyei
oped which seemed to run counter t.