Daily Kennebec journal., 1914-01-06
DEGREES POWER.
UntamygStrikes at Position
Of Attorney General.
Former Counsel Of Famous Pujo
Committee Addresses Mfrs.
Advocates Executive Body to Take
Over Work Of McReynoIds, Courts.

!
Chicago. Jan. 5.--A powerful execu-
| tive body to take over the work which
| the attorney general of the United
States and the federal courts have at
tempted in enforcing the disintegra-
tion OF outlaw corporations is the
country's great need as sketched by
Samuel Untermyer of New York here
| tonight Addressing the members of
| the Illinois Manufacturers Associa-
| ton, the former counsel for the Pujo
committee which placed the threads of
the country's finance under the micro
scope year ago, presented "a legisla-
tive program to restore business free
dom and confidence"
He struck at the consent decrees''
Us now being negotiated by the attor-
ney general and declared that no such
vast power as now exercised by him of
determining corporate life or death
should be lodged in any appointive Of
! ffeer of the government.
1t ceases TO be a government law"
he continued, and becomes a fitful,
uncertain and irresponsible govern
ment of men with every case law un-
to itself, to be decided by the whim
Of one man and subject to no fixed
rule or right of appeal
The speaker said he realized it was
a condition and not theory that con-
fronted the attorney general and that
he was forced TO take upon himself
duties that should not be thrust upon
him.
To remedy the defect in the legal ma
ehlnery Mr.. Untermyer advocated the
establishment of an industrial COM
mission into which the present bureau
of corporations should be merged and
the enlargement of the powers of the
Interstate Commerce Commission. He
regarded these steps as fundamental
TO any effective scheme for enforcing
the segregation of unlawful combina-
tions under the Sherman act.
The execution of the decree in the
standard Oil case he called fragrant
and pitiful" and declared that the at
torney general should not rest con-
tent with such .puerile outcome as
an object lesson" The last experience
in the case of the Union Pacific and
Southern Pacific railroads Mr.. Inter
nyer regarded as another mountain
Of litigation that labored to bring forth
mice of achievement
ne root of responsibility for COR
porate distrust and other ills he traced
TO stockholder inertia" and pointed
to the historical fact that no board
of directors of a great corporation
with widely scattered stockhelding has
ever been dislodged, no matter how
great might have been the provoca-
ton for the change" He explained
that if commission had taken up the
decree in the Union and Southern Pa
clfic cases its first and fundamental
fuiv would Rave been to supervise an
election for directors of the Southern
Pacific management and that indie
pendent stockholders would have had
their say instead of the Union Pacific
merely recording its will as to who
should constitute the board of direct
ors of its liberated competitor,
As one of the main planks in his
legislative program Mr.. Untermyer
SAID that every corporation engaged in
interstate commerce with gross an
nual business exceeding $4,000, 900, or
capital exceeding $1,000, 900. should he
required to take out a federal license
and thus subject itself to Jurisdiction
of the commission. Only in that vay.
ne peileVed, the secret violations of the
law would be discovered and an i'm
partial administration be effected.
he sketched in great detail propo-
sltlons for the prohibition of inter-
iocklnS officers and directors and in
conclusion upon this point remarked
The very recent and belated change
of heart on this subject on the part
of our leading banking house gives
gratifying evidence of this power of
pubic sentiment upon the most hard
ehed and defiant offenders. 1t is to be
regretted, however, that the CONVEX
sion IS not more complete The ac-
tion thus far taken by that firm is
most unSubstantial. Let us hope it is
only the beginning"
he proposed the prohibition of hold i
ing companies but made exceptions in
the cases of purely personal security
hoidlng companies which are very de-
slrable as means of equalizing the
| risks of investment for small holders
and also in the case of many useful
| cooperative enterprises.
Toward the prohibition of stock wa
tering he urged rigid restriction of
good will stock to a basis shown to be
| conservative as determined and certi-
| fied by independent public account
ants. with the exclusion of anything
| for future or undetermined earnings.
he proposed to require the dis
| closure of profits on selling securities
the extinction of voting trust and fiscal
agents, and coming to the conclusion
of his program he argued for the in
corporation of the stock exchange and
clearing house association, and pro-
posed that combination among the
owners of competing patents should
render the patents void.
| He believed that if the leaders in
affairs would cooperate in the work
of adjustment and reform with minds
purged of the prejudices imbedded BY
the years of imperfect laws and op.