Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1914-01-23

u0tOWdlO KIM.
Private Monopoly lntolerahle
I'VE are all agreed that private
monopoly is .adefensible and intoier-
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 Tor which business
waits.
1T awaits with acquiesenee in the
first place for laws which will eff
fectually prohibit and prevent such
interlockings of the personnel Of the
directories 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 practically
one and the same, those who sell and
those who buy but the same persons
trading with ose another under dii-
ferent names and in different combina-
tons, and those whose affect TO COM
pete, 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 i'm
convenience 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 ursurped the place which be-
longs 10 independent Industrial man
agement working in its behoof. 1t
will bring new men, new energies, a
new spirit of initiative, new blood
into the management of our great
business enterprises.
Harm and Injustice Done.
In the second place, business men,
as we'll as those who direct public af
| fairs, now recognize and recognize
with painful ciearness, 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 intereste SUI
bordinated to the interests of the men
who financed them and of their bust
ness enterprises which those men
wished to promote.
| THE country is ready therefore to
accept and accept with relief as we'll
| 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 20 meet
the rapidly growing requirements OF
/ the country for increased and inn
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 eoun-
/ 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 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
Definition Nov 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-
tically eliminate uncertainty, the Law
itself and the penalty being made
equally plain.
And the business men of the
country desire something more than
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
The opinion OF the country would
instantly approve of such commits
sion. It would not wish to see it en-
powered to make terms with monop-
oily or in any sort to assume control
of business, as il the government
made itself responsible. 1t demands
such commission only as an indis-
pensible instrameD+ OF information
end publicity, as a clearing house for