The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-01-23

proper development to meet the rap
idly growing requirement Of the
country for increased and aimprOved
transportation facilities. Upon this
question those who are chiefly re-
sponsible for the actual management
and operation of the railroads have
spoken plainly and earnestly with a
purpose We ought to be quick to ac-
cept II will be one step, and very
important one, toward the necessary
separation of the business of produc-
ton from the business OF transporta-
ton.
The business of the country
awaits and has suffered because it
could not obtain further and more eX-
plicit legislative definition of the pol
icy and meaning of the existing anti
trust law. Surely We are sufficiently
familiar with the actual process and
methods of monopoly and 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 can be eX-
plicitly forbidden by statute in such
terms as will practically eliminate
uncertainty, the law itself and the
po1a atty Being made equally plain.
Business men OF the country de-
sire something more than that the
menace of legal process in these mat
ters be made explicit and Ineligible
! They desire the advice, the definite
guidance and information which can
/ be supplied by an administrative
body. an interstate trade commission.
The opinion of the country would
/ instantly approve of such a commits
! sion. 1t would not wish to see it en-
powered to make terms with monop
| oily or in any sort to assume control
of business, as if the government
made itself responsible. 1t demands
such a commission only as an indis
pensible instrument of information
and publicity, as a clearing house for
the facts by which both the public
mind and the managers Of great bus
= mess undertakings should be guided,
and as an nstrumentality for doing
justice to business where the pro-
cesses of the courts or the natural
forces of correction outside the
courts are inadequate to adjust the
remedy to the wrong in a way that
will meet all the equities and circum-
stances of the case
'Inasmuch as our object is to meet
business half way In it's processes of
self correction and disturb it's Iegis-
lative course as little as possible. we
ought to see to it that penalties and
punishments should fall, not upon
business itself, but upon the individ-
uals who use the instrumentalities of
business to do things which public
policy and sound business practice
condemn. These should be held in.
dividually responsible and the punish
ment should fall upon them, not upon
the business organizations of which
they make illegal use. 1t should be
one of the main objects of our legisla-
ton to divest such persons of their
corporate cloak and deal with them
as with those who do not represent
their corporations, but merely by de
no 10
Other questions remain which will
need very thoughtful and practical
treatment Enterprises, in these nod
edn days Of great individual fortune,
are oftentimes interlocked, by the fact
that the greater part of their cor por-
ate stock is owned by a single per-
son or group of persons who are in
soma way intimately related III IN
terest. We are agreed, | take it, trat
holding compai les should he lrlhIi'
tied. bat What o. the Controllin@ Hri-
waite ownership of individuals or a.
uaIly cooperative groups of inGi"ii-
uals Sha', tie private owhCr5 Ct
capital stocx re suffered to be imam
selves in effect holding companies?
Shall we require the owners of stock
when their voting power in several
companies which ought to be indie
pendent of one another would consti-
tute actual control, to make election
in which Of them will they exercise
their right to vote? This question !
venture for your consideration.
There is another matter in which
imperative considerations of justice
and fair play suggest thoughtful rem
edial action. Not only do many OF
the combinations affected or sought
to be effected in the industrial world |