The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1914-01-24

Win the public interest and the free-
dom of trade, cannot always be dis
sected into their component units as
readily as railroad companies or sim
liar organizations can be. Their dis
solution by ordinary legal process may
oftentimes involve financial conse-
quences likely to overwhelm the Sc
curity market and bring upon 1t break
down and confusion. There ought to
be an administrative commission ca
pable of directing and shaping such
corrective processes, not only in aid
OF the courts but also by indepndent
suggestion. if necessary.
Make Punishment Certain.
"Inasmuch as our object and the
spirit of our action in these matters
is to meet business half way in its
processes of self-correction and dis
turb its legitimate course as little as
possible, we ought to see to it. and the
Judgment of practical and sagacious
men OF affairs everywhere would ap-
plaud us If we did see to it that pen
alties and punishments should fall.
not upon business itself. to its confu
sion and interruption. but upon the
| individuals who use the instrumental
tiles of business to do things which
public policy and sound business prac-
tice condemn. Every act of business
| is done at the command or upon the
initiative of some ascertainable per
son or group of persons. These should
be held individually responsible and
the punishment should fall upon them.
not upon the business organization OF
which they make illegal use. 1t should
be one of the main objects of our leg
islation to divest such persons of
/ their corporate cloak and deal with
| them as with those who do not rep
resent their corporations. but merely
| by deliberate intention break the law.
Other questions remain which will
need very thoughtful and practical
treatment. Enterprises, in these mod
ern days of great individual fortunes.
are oftentimes interfocked, not by
being under the control of the same
directors, but by the fact that the
| greater part of their corporate stock
is owned by single person or group
of persons who are in some way in
timateey related in interest.
Holding Companies.
I'VE are agreed, / take it, that hold
| ing companies should be prohibited.
| but what of the controlling private
ownership of individuals or actually
cooperative groups of individuals?
Shall the private owners of capital
stock be suffered to be themselves In
effect holding companies? We do not
wish, / suppose, to forbid the pur-
chase of stocks by any person who
pleases to buy them in such quanti-
| ties as he can afford, or in any way
arbitrarily to limit the sale of stocks
to bonafide purchasers. Shall we re-
quire the owners of stock, when their
voting power in several companies
which ought to be Independent of one
another would constitute actual con-
| troll, to make selection in which OF
them they will exercise their right to
vote? This question venture for
your consideration.
There is another matter in which
| imperative considerations of justice
and fair play suggests thoughtful
remedial action. Not only do many
of the combinations effected or sought
|
work an injustice upon the public in
general; they also directly and seri-
ously injure the individuals who are
put out of business in one fair way or
another by the many dislodging and
exterminating forces of combination
hope that we shall agree in giving
private individuals who claim to have
been injured by these processes the
right to found their suits for redress
upon the facts and judgments proved
| and entered in suits by the govern
ment where the government has upon
its own initiative sued the combina-
tions complained of and won its suit
and that the statute of limitations
shall be suffered to run against such
litigants only from the date of the
conclusion of the governments action.
Individual Justice.
at is not fair that the private lti-
| CANT should be obliged to set up and
establish again the facts which the
| government has proved. He cannot
afford, he has not the power to make
use of such processes OF inquiry as
the government has command of
| Thus shall individual Justice be done
while the processes of business are
rectified and squared with the general
| conscience.
81 have laid the case before you. nc
doubt as it lies in your own mind as
| 1t lies in the thought of the country
| What must every candid man say OF
| the suggestions have laid before you
of the plain obligations of which
have reminded you? That these are
new things for which the country is
not prepared? No; but that they are
old things now familiar. and must OF
course be undertaken II we are to
| square our laws with the thought and
] desire of the country JTntil these