Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-20
FINDS FLAWS IN
SEVEN SISTERS"
Lecturer on Corporations Shows
Weak Spots of Wilson'S
Pet Measure.
BILLS ONLY EXPERIMENT,
HE TELLS CREDIT MEN
Must Be Watched by Business
Men, D. F. Burnett
Asserts.

That the seven sisters corpora
ton bills drawn by President Wilson
while he was governor of this State
and passed by the Legislature are
an experiment which must be closely
watched by the business men of the
country was stated by d. Frederick
Burnett at the MONDAY luncheon of
the Newark Association of Credit
Men.
Mr.. Burnett is lecturer on cor
porations at New York University
and the New Jersey Law School. He
declared 1t was question whether
the Seven Sisters" successors to the
seven maidens with the long and
flowing locks, would prove to be
restorer growing two hairs instead
of one, or whether they would create
badness.
The speaker explained the danger
which the public las felt as a result
of the difficult and dangerous power
of voting which exists in corpora
tions, He declared the Seven Sis
ters" were designed to remedy the
evil of corporations controlling the
stock of other corporations with in
tent to restrain trade. The first of
the Seven Sisters" Mr.. Burnett de-
clared, defined a trust "as any cor
po4ation making an agreement in
restraint of trade or creating
monopoly"
Points Out Weak Spot.
After telling how the seven bills
made il criminal for the directors of
any corporation to make such an
agreement and how they were held
personally responsible, Mr. Burnett
said:
But the colored person in the
woodpile there is the section number
40. 1t says that any corporation in
New Jersey may purchase any stock
of any other corporation that is
necessary for its business.
The speaker illustrated how the di
rectors of corporations might secure
the control of stock in several other
corporations which are deemed neces-
sary to their business. After the con-
troll of these various companies had
been secured, he declared, a corpora
ton would suddenly find itself con-
trolling the commidity which 1t was
manufacturing and thereby find it
self in the trust class.
THAT section appears to me to be
the weak spot in the Seven Sisters, :"
declared Mr.. Burnett, land 1T is a
weakness which may prove fatal to
them"
Must Watch Experiment.
Mr.. Burnett also pointed out the
strength of the bills which held the
directors of a corporation violating
the law as personally guilty of crime.
dropping all fiction of having us
bow down and worship corporations, !"
he said, the Seven Sisters say that
a corporation is nothing but an asgre-
cation of individuals, and where guilt
exists the guilt is personal
II have pointed out the weak
points and the strong points in the
Seven Sisters " he concluded. They
have been designed to meet the evil
which has been shown to exist. It's
now up to the business men of the
country to watch workings of the
bills. for they are an experiment
I'VE must watch the experiment
and note the results. If the expert
ment is too strong we must weaken
it somewhat If they are found to be
the remedy for which they were in
tended, no doubt it will result in the
adoption of a national Seven Sis
tiers.