Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1914-01-28

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novel change are necessary. It 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 10 pass TO
be the buiwsrks and safeguards of in
dustry against the forces that have
disturbed it. What We have to do can
be done in a new spirit, in thoughtful
moderation. without revolution OF an
untoward kind
Private Monopoly intolerabIe
We are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefenslble and intoler-
able. and our program is founded upon
that conviction. 1t will be compre-
hensiye but not a radical or unaceept-
able program, and these are its items.
the changes which opinion deliberately
sanctions and for which business
waits.
1t awaits with aequiesence in the
first place for laws which will eff
fectually prohibit and prevent such
interlockings of the personnel of the
directorates of great corporations
banks and railroads, industrial. COM
mercisl 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 Jut the same per-
sons trading with one another under
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-
ficient time should be allowed, OF
course, in which to effect these
changes OF organization without incon-
venience or confusion.
Such a prohibition viii work much
more than 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. It 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 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 win 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 af-
fairs now recognize, and recognize
with painful elearness, 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 bust
ness enterprises which those men
wished to promote.
"The country is ready therefore to
accept and accept with relief as well
as approval. 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
the country for increased and snl-
70,
cannot postpone action in this matter
without leaving the railroads exposed
10 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 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 suf-
fered because it 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-
nation of the law before it can make
sure just what the law is.
Definition Now Possible.
Surely We are sufficiently familiar
with the actual processes and meth
DDS OF monopoly and Of the many
hurtful restraints OF trade to make
definition possible, at any rate up to
the limits of what experience has dis
closed. These practices, being now
abundantly disclosed, can be explic-
lily and item by item, forbidden by
statute in such terms as will prac-
ticalIy eliminate uncertainty, the law
itself and the penalty being made
equally plain.
And the business men of the
country desire something more thar
that the menace Of legal process in
these matters be made explicit and in.
telligible. They desire the advice, the
definite guidance and information
which can be supplied by an admin
istrative body, an interstate trade
commission.