St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-07-24

ed the phrase, big Business"
which has already become a part of
the political yernacular. 1t il note
worthy that Mr.. Prouty's ideas were
quickly caught up by both President
Taft and Colonel Roosevelt, and
have virtually been written into the
republican national platform.
It would have been most appropri-
ate for the republican party of YER
mont, Mr.. Prouty's home state, to
make a strong feature of his trust
regulating plan as part of its state
platform With this in view, Mr..
Prouty was asked to suggest such
plank as he would like embodied.
Very willingly he did this, but it
happened that the pressure upon his
time was such that he could not give
it the desired consideration; also,
through misunderstanding of the
convention date, he delayed sending
it until too late for it's inclusion in
either the tentative or the final draft.
We are permitted however, to
publish Mr.. Prouty's contribution
with the above explanation and we
commend it as the clearest-cut, most
sanely progressive utterance we have
seen on this very important subject:
mo more important question con-
| fronts this country than the atti-
tude of the federal government to-
wards business.
| "The present tendency to combin-
alton, to the concentration in the
hands of few individuals of the con-
troll of vast amounts of capital, has
produced a condition of monopoly in
many branches of industry which re-
quires the interference of the gov
eminent to protect the small COM
petitor against the unfair practices
of his great rival, and the consumer
against monopolistic prices.
''In the past the government has
attempted to deal with this subject
by the enactment of prohibitive stat
utes enforceable in the courts. This
method has not proved successful.
1t has accomplished at once too much
and too little. Harmful monopolies
have flourished almost without re-
straint, while honest capital has been
deferred from embarking in legiti-
mate enterprises.
eff the necessaries of life are to be
produced and marketed at the lowest
possible figure; if the United States
is to maintain itself against it's for
eign rivals in the markets of the
world; the right to enter into bust
ness arrangements the effect of
which may be to limit competition,
and the right to conduct certain
lines of industry upon so large a
scale as to become a virtual mono
poly, must be conceded. We believe
that the true theory is not to abso-
Iutely prohibit in all cases, but rath-
er to properly regulate enterprises of
| this character.
Regulation is essentially admins
trative, not judicial. 1t lays its hand
| directly upon the thing to be done or
to be prohibited. 1t determines in adj
vance, before property rights have
interviewed, whether the undertaking
is lawful. 1t stops, before the small
competitor has been driven out of
business, the illegitimate method.
with a view to supplementing
4 the Sherman Act, and to determining
how far, if at all, that act should be
amended, we believe that non-par-
tisan tribunal should be at once es-
| tabIished, in the nature of Trade
] Commission, with authority to inve-
stigate and report to Congress-; to
supervise the enforcement of the
present statutes against industrial
monopoly, and with a limited Juris-
diction, to make from the outset or
ders prohibiting improper competi-
tive practices and unlawful and
monopolistic enterprises.
I'VE further believe that gross
over capitalization of great business
enterprises has contributed much to
present conditions, and that this
should be prohibited. "-[Hera and
News.
Wide Awake st. Johnsbury
St. Johnsbury, in many respects
the most conservative of the large
towns of Vermont, is wide awake to
the advantages of giving the public
who come to town good hotel ac-
commodations. The ST. Johnsbury
Hotel Company has just filed articles
of association with the secretary Of
state. Its capital stock is 500 600
and it's incorporators are DR.. w. J.
Aldrich, P. r. Hazen, Frank w. Ball,
Joseph Fairbanks and Harry w.
Randall. The new company viii
erect on Main street, south of the
courthouse site on the Academy
property, a commOdious modern hos
telry-[Vermont Phoenix.
No Larger Menagerie
The stork, the bear, the bull |
moose-these have been successive |
Roosevelt emblems derived from the
animal kingdom. But Vermont hav-I
ing paid $4,000 for hedgehogs, she
may probably think twice before en-
larging her menagerie.-T Rutland /
News.
The Agricultural School
The Agricultural school at Lyndon
graduated a class Of rs young men
last week. All of the counties of the
state were represented and IL per
cent of the towns. It is said that
all the graduates will re-
turn to their home farms to carry
on actual farm work. That is the
best thing that can happen to the
the young men at
home who have had the benefit of
scientific training TO aid them In their
work. 1t is also encouraging to read
that the entering class next year will
be as large as the school can accom-
modate.-[ Enterprise and Vermonter.
Getting ont n PARTY III