The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1913-11-01
JOSEPH T. DAVIES
ADDRESSES BODY
Tells Hardware Dealers
About Industrial System
THE TRUST PROBLEM
Solution Depends Upon Determination
of Question Commissioner of
Corporations Is Inves-
tigating

Atlantic City. N. J., October 3l.-Tht
beginning of a new, scientific investlga-
tion of the industrial system under the
direction of President Wilson, which will
contribute it's legislative programme al
the session of Congress beginning Decem-
ber /, was announced here tonight by
Commissioner of Corporations Joseph E
Davies in address before the National
Association of Hardware Dealers.
Whether a competitive system of large
units or the monopolistic system is the
most advantageous to society is the ques-
ton the bureau of corporations will at
tempt to determine
'It is the choice of the quality of mind
of the President of the United States
that he should desire facts on which to
base his judgment" said Commissioner
Davies. There is now no governmental
or other agencies engaged in attempting
to get scientific information on this fact
We shall enter into this investigation
with the sole intent of working out in a
scientific and fair minded spirit the abso-
lutte facts. So vital and so fundamental
is this problem that to attack it in any
other spirit would be criminal. The
problem bristles with difficulty. 1t will
demand an increased appropriation from
Congress. The results may not coincide
with all we hope to procure, but we can
obtain facts that will contribute toward
correct Interpretation of industrial con-
ditions as they exist
Solution of Trust Problem
Commissioner Davies declared that the
ultimate solution of the trust problem
depended upon the determination of the
question his bureau is about to investi-
gate. If the monopolistic system should
be found to be most efficient there would
still remain, ne said, a question whether
the government should maintain an atti-
ture against monopoly by reason of other
and greater additional evils it induces
Reviewing arguments for and against
monopoly, Commissioner Davies declared
that one of the chief concerns of the great
body of people for whom the government
exists is which form of production COM
petitlve or monopolistic, can produce and
sell what the public buys most cheaply
consistent with fair standards of living
for workers.
Within the last decade and a half, y
he said, two hundred corporations have
come into property of more than twenty.
two billion dollars. Two hundred artifi.
cial persons own three times as much
wealth as the country owned in 1850. That
sum is three and one half times as great
as the public debt. The gross income
of one of these artificial persons is equal
TO the total revenue of the government
from internal revenue and customs. Twen-
ty-four of these corporations have three
and one half times the gross income OF
the federal government.
THE period of greatest DEVELOPMENT In
this movement occurred in the face of the
Sherman law and prior to 1904, when II
was first sought to be made an active
agency for the government
There has come an economic reyolu.
ton. The unorganzed many are demand.
ing that law shall protect their rights
from the encroachment of the organized
few. Government or society is concerned
with these tremendous Industrial units OF
several different angles What effec,
have these gigantic concentrations had
upon the question of representative gov.
ernment and its perpetuity? Is there dan.
ger of the child becoming greater tina 4
the parent? What safeguards must tn,
state throw about itself so that the DOW.
ers of government may not be subverteo
by the greed of men and the inherent
Continued From Page EIevea)