The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-13
'BEVER|DGE ON THE GOVERNMENT ILLS Common Sense and Honest
 Methods the Panacea SHERMAN LAW AGED
Wants Permanent Non- Partisan Tariff Board and Bodily Imprisonment Instead of Money Fines.
 Control of Child Labor

Denver, February 1e-Common sense and honest methods AS a panaeea for governmental and commercial life. bodily imprisonment in place of money fines, national corrupt practice act applicable to state and county com mittees that have anything to do with the election of national officials, a per manent bipartisan tariff board and national control of child labor were ad- vocated by former United States Sem an address here tonight.
 Mir. Beveridge described the Sher- man law as a relic of the seventeenth century and said: "The oil and to- bacco trusts are more alive today than ever before because they now live un- der the express approval of the courts, while not one wrong they have inflicted on the people has been ended.'
 MT. Beverdges address in part was as follows:
 ITO deal with the instant need of things-this was the method of Alb b- raham Lincoln, and 1t must be ours. To continue to be the party of Lin coin. our party actively must do the work we find before us instead of idly praising the work our fathers found be- fore them, but which is now behind us.
 Our own progress has built up a condition and d problem-the condi- tion of vast sums of money at work producing and distributing the neces- sities of the people, and the problem of handling that massed wealth so that it may serve and not wrong the peo- pie.
 More than two decades ago. Congress passed a law, a re-enactment of an Eng fish statute of the seventeenth century. That curious statute was meant to pre- vent trusts--not to remedy their evils. Yet it utterly has failed even to check their growth, and has not even touched their evils. Since it's enactment organ ized capital engaged in industry has de- veloped more fully than in the whole his tory of the world before. Administrations of both political parties have dealt with that law with equal futility. Scores of courts have ground out an unheard of volume of decisions on it without avail. The last of these were the decrees of the federal courts under the judgment of the supreme tribunal of the nation in the cases of the two greatest trusts on earth.
 Yet the oil and tobacco trust are more alive today than ever because they live under the express approval of the courts, while not one wrong which they inflicted
 1aI
 these mighty agencies of commerce have not been hurt in their bad possibilities, the smaller ones have been hurt in their good possibilities. No two American
 business men today can agree on the mutual conduct of their affairs and be absolutely sure that they are now law breakers
 German trade is ahead of ours. What is the secret of this? Nothing but com- mon sense. The Germans do not put ball and chain on German business; no,
 they put wings on it's flying feet. The German people do not say to German workingmen, look out for yourselves and the devil take the hindmost; mo- they even see that every man who tolls is insured
 ''The German people do not say to their farmers, sell in the cheapest and buy In the highest market-your welfare is no concern or ours, no, they say he'P ooi man capital and labor to capture the worlds trade and you farmers shall have the highest prices that the spells of the victors can bestow.
 ''The time has come when we Americans must at least equal this common sense statesmanship of rival nations. First of all. we must give American business 8 free hand for honest work; but we must see that it is honest work. We must hot fro p6 iS the nitrate 6 hand We must open the oceans of Amer
 can business so that all honest merchant men may sail the seas of honest trade unhndered; and that they may do so we must clean the waters of our commerce from every buccaneer.
 Let American business men know where they are and then tell them to go ahead and God speed and proper them. Let clear and practical laws take the place of foggy and sentimental statutes. Let bodily imprisonment take the place of money fines Pass law making Ii a crime for any interstate corporation to issue stock that does not have behind it assets equal to 100 cents on the dallar. Do our mighty business concerns raise prices in one part of the country and low CT them in another to the financial ad- vantage of the men who manipulate those prices and to the injury of the people ? Then pass law making it crime for any interstate corporation to do that eX- cept as the difference in cost of trans portation justifies 1t.
 Do these powers of pillage in Ameri- can business invest in the nomination and election of public officials; and in putting expert politicians in control of party organizations which determine those others? Then pass national cor rupt practices act which shall apply to county and state committees that have anything to do with the election of na- to prevent criminal interests investing corrupt money in national committees | and yet let them give it to state and | county committees?
 | "In short, strike directly at trust | evils. It is these that hurt the people l Almost equal to our trust question | is our tariff question. The only cer- | tain thing about our tariffs is uncer- l tainty. There is no economic or ma tural reason why American business in | dustry and prosperity should be upset | by freaksh and wholesale tariff
 changes. No other country tolerates
 them or could survive them if it did Our tariff policy is fixed We Ameri- cans are protectionists-red blooded protectionists.
 Honest protection is necessary to our | peoples well being; but it is even more necessary that our tariff shall be made steady and its changes natural instead | of being uncertain and volcable Our tariff must be made a mat | ter of business instead of a matter | of politics. Common sense says that we should find out the truth and build | our tariff on that. genuine, perma nent, non partisan tariff commission to