The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1914-01-28

ment and business men are ready to
meet each other half way In q common
effort to square business methods with
both public opinion and law. The best
informed men Of the business world
condemn the methods and processes
and consequences Of monopoly as we
condemn them; and the instructive
judgment Of the vast majority Of busi-
ness men everywhere goes with them.
We shall now be their spokesman.
That is the strength Of our position
and the sure prophecy Of what will en-
sue when our reasonable work Is done.
when serious contest ends. when
men unite in opinion and purpose,
those who are to change their ways of
business, joining with those who ask
! for the change, 1t is possible to effect
It in the way In which prudent and
thoughtful and patriotic men would
wish to see it brought about, with as
few, as slight, as easy and simple bust
ness resadjustments as possible in the
circumstances. nothing essential dis
turbed. nothing torn up by the roots,
no parts rent asunder which can be
left in wholesome combination. For.
tunately, no measures of sweeping or
novel change are necessary. 1t will be
understood that our object is not to
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 1t. What we have to do can
be done In a new spirit, in thoughtful
moderation, without revolution Of an
untoward kind.
Private Monopoly intoIerabIe
I'VE are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intoler-
able, and our program is founded upon
that conviction. 1t will be 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 ef-
fectually prohibit and prevent such
interlockings of the personnel OF the
directorates of great corporations
banks and railroads, industrial. COM
mercial and public service bodies-as
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-
different names and in different COM
binations, and those whose affect to
compete, in fact, partners and masters
of some whole field Of business. Suf-
fcient 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 than 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 its behoof. It will bring
Of initiative, new blood into the man.
agement of our great business enter
prises. 1t will open the field of in
dustrial development and origination
to scores of men who have been
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
business activities of the whole coun-
try.
Harm and Injustice Done.
In the second place, business men.
as well as those who direct public at
fairs now recognize, and recognize
with painful clearness, the great harm
and injustice which has been done to
many, if not all, of the great railroad
systems of the country by the way
in which they have been financed and
their own distinctive interests subordi-
mated to the interests of the men
who financed them and Of other busi-
ness enterprises which those men
wished to promote.
THE country is ready therefore to
accept and accept with relief as well
as approval, a law which will confer
upon the interstate commerce COM
mission the power to superintend and
| regulate the financial operations by
which the railroads are henceforth to
be supplied with the money they need
for their proper development to meet
the rapidly growing requirements of
he 70 fpa i'm
proved facilities of transportation. We
cannot postpone action in this matter
| without leaving the railroads exposed
to many serious handicaps and haz-
| ards; and the prosperity of the rail-
roads and the prosperity of the coun-
| try are inseparably connected. Upon
this question those who are chiefly
responsible for the actual manage
ment and operation of the railroads
have spoken very plainly and very
earnestly, with a purpose we ought to
be quick to accept it. 1t will be one step
and very important one, toward the
necessary separation of the business
of production from the business Of
transportation.
THE business of the country awaits
also. has long awaited and has SUI
fered because 1t could not obtain fur
Their and more explicit legislative def
milton of the policy and meaning of
the existing antitrust laws. Nothing
hampers business like uncertainty.
Nothing daunts or discourages 1t like
the necessity to take chances, to run
the risk of falling under the condem-
i ~ ho lax hak