The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-01-28

the DulW2rhS ana safeguards OIL III
dustry against the forces that have
disturbed it. What we have to do
can be done in a new spirit, in
thouhtful moderation, without revol-
ution of an untoward kind.
Indefensible.
eve are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intol>
erable,' and our program is founded
upon that conviction. 1t will be a
comprehensive, but not radical pro-
gram and these are its items, the
changes which opinion deliberately
sanctions and for which bsiness
waits:
''It waits with acquisence for laws
which will effectually prohibit and
prevent such interlocking of the per-
sonnel Of the directorates Of great
corporations-bank and railroads,
industrial, commercial and public
service bodies-as in effect result in
making those who borrow and those
who lend practically one and the
same; those who sell and those who
buy but the same persons trading
with one another under different
names and in different combinations,
and those who affect to compete in
fact partners and masters Of some
whole field of business. Sufficient
time should be allowed in which to
effect these changes Of organization
without inconvenience of confusion.
"Such a prohibition will work
much more than a mere negative
good by correcting the serious evils
which have arisen. because 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 its own behalf.
'Tn the second place, business men
as we'll as those who direct public
affairs now recognize with painful
clearness the great harm and injus-
t;ce which has been done to many,
if not all, of the great railroad sys-
tens of the country by the way in
which they have been financed and
their own distinctive interests sub
ordinated to the interest of the men
who financed them and Of other bus
mess enterprises which those men
wish to promote. The country is
ready to accept with relief and ap-
p7oval, law which will confer upon
the interstate commerce commission
the power to superintend and regu-
late the financial operations by which
the railroads are henceforth to be
supplied with the money they need
for their proper development to meet
the rapid growing requirements OF
the country for increased and i'm
proved transportation facilities. Up
on this question those who are chief
ly responsible for the actual manage
ment and operation of the railroads
have spoken plainly and earnestly,
with a purpose we ought to be quick
to accept. 1t will be one step, and a
very important one, toward the nee
essary separation Of the business OF
production from the business OF
transportation.
business Waits.
"The business of the country
awaits. and has suffered because it
could not obtain, further and more
explicit legislative definition Of the
policy and meaning of the existing
antitrust law. Surely, we are suffi-
ciently familiar with the actual pro-
cesses and methods Of monopoly and
the many hurtful restraints Of trade
to make definition possible, at any
rate up to the limits of what exper-
ience has disclosed. These practices
can be explicitly forbidden by stat
ute in such terms as will practically
eliminate uncertainty, the law itself
and the penalty being made equally
plain.
Business men of the country de-
sire something more than that the
menace of legal process in these mat
ters be made explicit and Ineligible.
They desire the advice, the definite
guidance AID information which can
be supplied by an administrative
body. an interstate trade commission.
"The opinion of the country would
instantly approve of such a commis-
sion. 1t would not wish to see 1t
empowered to make terms with mon
opoly or in any sort to assume con-
troll of business as If the government
made itself responsible. 1t demands
such a commission only as an indis-
pensible instrument Of information
and publicity, as clearing house for
the facts by which both the public
mind and the managers Of great bus
mess undertakings should be guided,
as an insrumentality for doing JUS
tice to business where the processes
of the courts or the natural forces
of correction outside the courts are
inadequate to adjust the remedy to
the wrong in a way that will meen
all the equities and circumstances OF
the case.
Half Way.
"Inasmuch as our object is to meet
business halfway in its processes Of
self-correction and disturb its legiti-
mate course as little as possible, we
ought to see to it that penalties and
punishments should fall, not upon
business itself, but upon the individ-
uals who use the instrumentalities of
business to do things which public
policy and sound business practice
condemn. These should be held in
dividually responsible and the pun
ishment should fall upon them, not
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