Evening journal., 1913-12-05
SEES DANGER In
ANTITRUST LAWS
Mr.. Douglas FavOrS Com.
mission With Powers to
License Corporations

Ex-Governor William L. Douglas
Of Mass. believes that the Sherman
Antitrust Law does much more
harm than good. This law so re-
stricts and harnesses business that in
dustry must soon come to a stand
still.
A firm believer in low tariff du-
ties on which issue he was elected
Governor and which he pushrd vigor-
ously when most other leading DEM
ocrats were timid tariff reformers.
Mr.. Douglas sees Great danger to
our new tariff policy from a depres-
sion that will almost surely result II
business confidence is destroyed by
flood Of drastic restrictive laws."
Mr.. Douglas thinks that the fear OF
coming events is largely responsible
for the slowing down of business that
is already manifested in some Indus
tries. Unless this fear is soon re-
moved by the passage of a national
banking and currency bill, and by
the abandonment of the proposed
Antitrust" program, he expects to
see the depression in business ex-
tend until the administration at
Washington will be discredited I'VE
may be sure" he says. that the stand
pat high protectionist Republicans
will welcome such a depression and
will again attempt TO fool the voters
by telling them that Wilson and Tn
derwood did it with their free trade
Bill"
Assuming that the new administra-
tion VIII not repeal the Sherman An
Thrust Law which is a menace to
business and assuming also that it
will be impossible to obtain relief
through the passage Of measures that
have the effect of an antidote, ex-
Governor Douglas is strongly of the
opinion that There should be a per-
manent Industrial Commission with
power to license corporations doing
an interstate commerce business"
Otherwise" says Mr.. Douglas Cap
ital Will remain timid, manufac-
turers will lack courage, business
Will become stagnant and prosperity
will vanish"
The trouble with most Of our law
makers" says Mr.. Douglas. is that
they do not clearly distinguish between
monopoly or trust corporations and
simply ordinary business corporations.
They try to make the same laws ft
both classes of corporations. Many
OF our legislators apparently work
upon the assumption that all large
corporations are bad and should be
regulated. The truth is that most Of
our corporations and even many OF
our fairly large ones have no taint OF
monopoly and should not be molested.
II ought to be easy to determine what
classes of corporations constitute
I monopolies and therefore what ones
should be regulated"
THE sensible businesslike thing to
do. in my opinion. is to establish a
commission which may farily be called
an industrial commission to study and
classify our industries with reference
to this matter Of monopoly. There is
now of course some confusion anC
misunderstanding as to Just what
monopoly is and what il is not Let
the administration define and specify
if it will what monopoly is. Then its
members will have clearly before them
the nature OF the evil to be remedied.
Then this commission basing its work
on its own scientifically established
definition may if the administration
II prefers review the whole field Of our
actual industrial affairs as related to
carefully defined monopoly. It can
classify all lines Of business acticity.
Some lines it would naturally deter
mine to be essentially or entirely
/ monopolistic These could form the
first or highest class. Other lines
might be classel as semi-monopolistic
others partly monopolistic and so on.
For each of these classes It can be de-
\ termined by careful study what sort
OF legislation is needed to remove the
evil Of monopoly from that class. Then
with all the carefully arranged classes
in mind and definite knowledge Of the
actual situation of the industries in
question the needed legislation can
be intelligibly prepared. Boston,
Mass, Globe.