The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1914-01-22
WIILSONiDf TRUSTlnv
ANL is Laid
BEFORE

tive judgment of the vast majority
OF business men everywhere goes
with them.
I'VE are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intol-
cradle, and our program is founded
upon that conviction.
1t waits with acquiescense, in the
first place Tor laws which will effect
ually prohibit and prevent such in
terlockings of the personnel of the
directorates OF great corporations.
banks and railroads, industrial. COM
mercial and public service bodies
as in effect with 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 one an
other under different names and in
different combinations, and those who
affect to compete in fact partners
and masters OF some whole field OF
business. Sufficient time should be
allowed, of course, in which to effect
these changes of organization, with
out inconvenience or confusion.
"Such d prohibition will work
'mucn more lhan a mere negative
good by corresting the serious evils
which have arisen because, for eN-
ample, the men who have been the
directing spirits of the great invest
ment banks have usurped the place
winch longs to independent indus
trial management working in its own
behalf. 1t will bring new men, new
energies, a new spirit of initiative,
new blood, into the management of
our great business enterprises.
To Help Railroad Finance.
''In the second place, business men
as we'll 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 fl
nanced and their W distinctive IN
iterests subordinated to the interests
OF the men who financed them and
of other business enterprises which
these men wished to promote. The
country is ready. therefore,. to az
'cept, and accept with relief as we'll as
approval, Il law which will confer up
on the interstate commerce commits
sion the power to superintendent ana
ISSNiatS IL l'hliASidi OIS' tNioi' ~
which the railroads are henceforth 10
be supplied with the money they need
for their proper development to meet
the rapidly growing requirements o.
the country for increased and improN-
ed facilities of transportation.
To Define Acts of Monopoly.
The business of the country y
waits also, has long awaited and has
suffered because ii could not obtain,
further and more explicit legislative
definition OF the policy and meaning
OF the existing antitrust law.
surely we are sufficiently familiar
with the actual processes and meth
DDS OF monopoly and of the many
hurtlul restraints of trade to make
definition possible, at any rate up to
the limits of what experience has dis
closed.
And the business men OF the
country desire something more than
that the menace OF legal process III
these matters be made explicit and
Ineligible. They desire to advise,
the definite guidance and informa-
ton which can be supplied by an ad-
ministratiye body, an interstate trade
commission
1.-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 mono
poly or in any sort to assume control
of business, as if the government
were itself responsible. 1t demands
such a commission only as an indis-
penSable instrument of information
and publicity, as a clearing house for
the facts from which both the public
mind and the managers of great bust
ness undertakings should be guided.
and as an instrumentality for doing
justice to business where the process
es of the courts or the natural forces
of correction outside the courts are
inadequate to adjust the remedy TO
the wrong in u way that will meet
the case.
Punish Individuals.
"lnasmuch as our object and the
spirit of our action in these matters
is to meet business half way in It's
processes of self-correction and dis
turb its legitimate course as little as
possible, we ought to see to it. and
the judgment of practical and sagac-
ious men of affairs everywhere woull
applaud us if we did so to it, til At
penalties and punishments should
fall, not upon business itself, to the
confusion and interruption, but upon
the individuals who use the ins..u-
mentalities of business to do things
which public policy and sound bust
ness practice condemn.
Every act of business is done at
the command or upon the initiative
of some ascertainable person OF
group of persons. These should be
held individually responsible and tho
punishment should fall upon them
not upon the business organization
of which they make illegal use.
Are Old Ideas.
II have laid the case before you
no doubt as it lies in your w mind