Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1914-01-29

ehu'iSlOOu mat our OBJECT Is not 10
unsettle business or anywhere serious
ly to break its established courses
athwart. On the contrary, we desire
the laws we are now about to pass to
be the bulwarks and safeguards of In
dustry against the forces that have
disturbed II. What we have to do a
be done In a new spirit, in thoughtful
moderation. without revolution OF an
untoward kind.
Private Monopoly Intolerable
I'VE are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intoler-
able, and our program is founded upon
that conviction. 1t will be a compre-
hensive but not a radical or %unaccept-
able program, and these are its items,
the changes which opinion deliberately
sanctions and for which business
waits.
1t awaits with acquiesence in the
first place for laws which will eff
f%ectually prohibit and prevent such
~interlockings of the personnel Of the
directorates of great corporations
banks and railroads. industrial, com
HiclCldl anu puDllC btINlCe DOulcb-o
in effect result in making those who
borrow and those who lend practical
ly one and the same. those who sell
and those who buy but the same per-
sons trading with one another under
different names ard in different com
binations, and hose whose affect to
compete, in fact. partners and masters
Of some whole field of business. Suf-
ficient time should be allowed, of
course, in which to effect these
changes Of organization without incon-
venience or confusion.
Such a prohibition will work much
more han a mere negative good by
correcting the serious evils which
have arisen because, for example. the
men who have been the directing
, spirits of the great investment banks
have usurped the place which belongs
to Independent industrial management
working In it's behoof. 1t will bring
new men. new energies. a new spirit
. OF initiative, new blood into the man
agement of our great business enter
= prises. 1t will open the field of In
dustrial development and o~riginatior
:. to scores OF men who have beer
: obliged to serve when their abilities
, entitled them to direct. 1t will i'm
mensely hearten the young men com
: ing on and will greatly enrich the
l business activities of the whole coun
try.
Harm and Injustice Done.
q In the second place. business men
n as well as those who direct public at
fairs now recognize. and recognize
h with painful c%learness. the great harm
and injustice which has been done t
many. if no all. OF the great railroad
a systems of the country by the wa,
- in which they have been financed an
10 their own distinctive interests subord
- mated to the interests of the me
who financed them and of other bus
~ ness enterprises which those me
,. wished to promote.
IN THE country is ready therefore
NJ accept and accept with relief as we
10 as approval, a law which will COME
10 upon the interstate con
a mission the power to e~uperintend an
n regulate the financial operations b
in which the railroads are henceforth I
9, be supplied with the money they nee
- for their proper development to me-
-, the rapidly growing requirements
the country for increased and IN
proved facilities of transportation. W
cannot postpone action in this matt
without leaving the railroads expose
TO many serious handicaps and ha
=. ards: and the prosperity of the ra'
roads and the prosperity OF the cou
try are inseparably connected. Upc
III this question those who are chief
responsible for the actual manag
ry ment and operation of the RAILROAD
ar have spoken very plainly and vel
ce earnestly. with a purpose we ought
el be quick to accept 1t. 1t will be one ST.
Ut and a very important one, toward Il
necessary separation of the busine
'es Of production from the business
transportation.
ue The business Of the country avail
se also. has long awaited and has 81
ne fered because it could not obtain fl
oi Their and more explicit legislative de
as milton of the policy and meaning
ISL the existing antitrust laws. Nothi
TO hampers business like uncertain
Sc Nothing daunts or ~discourages 1t Ii
or the necessity TO take chances, to r
the risk OF falling under the condo
nation of the law before it a ma
sure Just what the law is.
in Definition Now Possible.
,ed Surely we are sufficiently famil
INV with the actual processes and me
he DDS of monopoly and of the ma
ov- hurtful restraints of trade to ma
out definition possible, at n rate up
ess the limits of what experience has {
we closed. These practices, being n
nee a%bundantly disclosed, can be exp
,rn. itly and item by item. forbidden
IN statute in such terms as will pr
non tically eliminate uncertainty. the
18th itself and the penalty being m;
,est equally plain.
,rld And the business men of
.ses country desire something more Il
we that the menace OF legal process
live these matters be made explicit and