Evening journal., 1912-08-06

are IN harmony with the program OF
the National Progressives. THE pres
ent conditions Of business cannot be
accepted as satisfactory" The reason
for this is explained. ia Mr., Roosevelt's
opinion. by the fact that "those dealing
with the subject have attempted to di-
vide into two camps. each as unwise
as the other" one camp has fixed its
attention only on the need. for pros
perity-" prosperity 70 the big man on
top. trusting 10 their mercy to let some
thing leak through 10 the mass Of their
countrymep below, which, in effect,
means that there should be no attempt
to regulate the ferocious scramble IN
which greed and cunning reap the
largest rewards" The other camp has
so fixed its attention upon the inius-
tees Of the distribution Of prosperity,
"omitting all consideration Of having
something TO distribute and advocates
action which. II Is true. would abolish
most Of the inequalities Of the distri-
button of prosperity. by only the un-
fortunately simple process Of abolish
ing the prosperity itself" The ten
dency Of those now I'm control Of the
Republican party IS TO give special
privileges TO big business and TO cor
rect the evil Of such course when
they become crying by sporadic law
suits under the antitrust law. The
tendency Of the Democrats. Judged
both by their record IN congress and
by the Democratic platform. is to abol-
ish all business Of any size or efh
cheney. on the ground that all bigness
Is badness and littleness and weakness
sign Of virtue what is needed is
action directly the reverse Of that thus
confusedly indicated
There should be applied to oil indus
trial concerns engaged in interstate
commerce in which there is either
monopoly or control Of the market the
principles already adopted lin regulat-
ing transportation concerns engaged IN
such commerce. The antitrust law
should be kept on the statute book TO
be invoked against every big concern
tending to monopoly or guilty Of anti
social practices. At the same time
national industrial commission should
be created which should have complete
power 10 regulate and control all the
great industrial concerns engaged in in
terstate business which practically
means al Of them IN this country.
This commission should exercise over
these industrial concerns like powers
70 those exercised over the railways by
the interstate commerce commission
and over the national banks by the
comptroller Of the currency and addi-
tlonal powers If found necessary" The
commission should have free access
20 the books Of each corporation and
power TO find out exactly how it treats
It's employees, its rivals and the gen
eral public. +s ANY corporation
voluntarily coming under the commits
sion should not be prosecuted under the
antitrust law as long as It obeys in
good faith the orders OF the commits
sion. The commission would be able 70
interpret in advance TO any honest man
asking the Interpretation what he may
do and what he may not do IA carrying
on a legitimate business" When cor
porations not submitting themselves to
the regulations OF the commission or
clearly evading or violating its orders
are prosecuted under the antitrust law
and convicted. the commission should
have the duty Of seeing that the de-
cree Of the court is put into effect com
pletely" Only in this way can there
| be avoided "such gross scandals ms
those attendant upon the present ad-
ministration's prosecution Of the stand
ard OH aud the tobacco trusts" pros.
ecution which has merely resulted In
increased prices to the public. injury to
the small competitor and actual fnan-
cial benefit TO the trusts themselves.
"rhe Progressive proposal IS definite
Il is practicable We promise nothing
That We cannot carry out, we promise
nothing which will ieopardize honest
business Our proposal Is Il
help honest business activity, however
extensive. and TO see that Il is reward
ed with fair return. so that there may
be no oppression either Of business
men or the common people. We pro
pose to make It worth while for oul
business men 10 develop the most efh
cient business agencies for use IN inter
national trade, for It is 70 the Interest
Of our whole people that We should d
well IN international business. Bet W.
propose 10 make those business agen
cies do complete justice 10 our own peo
Pile Where these concerns deal viii
the necessaries Of life the commission
should not shrink. n the necessity Il
proved from going 10 the extent OF ex
ercising regulatory control over m
conditions that create OF determin
monopoly prices
1T is imperative TO the welfare Of on
people that we enlarge and extend on
foreign commerce We are pre-em
nentiy htted TO do this because as
people we have developed high skill 4
the art Of manufacturing; our bushes
men are strong executives, strong O
2 ganlzers In every way possible on
. federal government should co-operal
/, IN this important matter Any on
. WHO has had opportunity to study an
i. observe first hand Germany's course
this respect must realize that their 20
icy Of cooperation between goverl
n ment and business has in comparativ
\ " few years made them a leading con
petitor for the commerce Of the worl
a Il should be remembered that they al
u doing this on a national scale and wit
. large units Of business, while the Der
4 ocrsts would have Us believe that "
y should do It with small units Of bus