Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-01-29

~"aSequeiCeS OIL monopoly as we con-
denim them: and the instructive judg-
ment of the vast majority of business
men everywhere goes with them. We
snail now be their spokesman. That is
the strength of u position and the
sure prophecy of what will ensue when
our reasonable work is done.
When serious contest ends, when
who are to change their ways of bust
ness Joining with those who ask for
the change, it is possible to effect it in
the way In which prudent and thought
ful and patriotic men would wish to
see 1t brought about, with as few. as
slight. as Easy and simple business
readjustments as possible in the cir
cumstances. nothing essential dis
turbed. nothing torn up by the roots,
no parts rent asunder. which can be
left IN wholesale combination.
Not Revolutionary.
Fortunately no measures of
sweeping or novel change are nee
essary.. 1t will be understood that
our object is NOT to unsettie bust
ness, or n whore seriously to
break it's established courses
athwart. On the contrary we desire
the laws we are now about to pass
to DO the bulwarks and safe guards
OF industry AGAINST tho forces that
have disturbed it. What we have to
90 can pc done in a new spirit. in
thouqhtful moderation without rev.
oiution OF any untoward kind.
we are all agreed that private mon
opoly Is lndefensible and intolerable'
u program is founded on that
conviction. 1t will be a comparative,
put not a radical or unacceptable pro-
gram and these are it's items. the
changes which opinion deliberately
sanctions II for which business waits:
1t waits with acquiescence, in the
Ilrst place for laws which will e%ffectu-
any prohlbl and prevent such inter-
lockings of the personnel of the di-
Iectorates OF he great corporations
banks and railroads, Industrial COM
merclal n public service bodies-as
IN effect result In making those who
borrow and those who lend practical
ly n and the same, those who sell
and those who buy but the same per-
sons trading with one another under
ditferent names and in different COM
plnatlons n those who affect to COM
Pete IN fact partners and masters Of
some Whole field Of business. Sufft-
clent time should be allowed, of course,
~ when 10 effect these changes of
organization without inconvience or
confusion.
.such a prohibition will work much
more than a 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 in.
industrial management
WORKING in its own behoof.
Develop New Blood.
1T will bring new men, new ener-
q,es' a rev spirit of initiative, new
blood. jrfn fna
great business enterprises. Ii will
open the field of industrial deveI-
o2n1ent n %oriqinatioa to scores
OF men who have been obIiced 70
serve when their abilities entitled
1hem to direct. 1t will immensely
nearten the younq men coming on
and will Greatly enrich the BUSINESS
activities of the whole country.
In the second place, business men
as we'll as those who direct nuhlio at
lalrs now recognize. n recognize with
painful clearness, the great harm, and
injustice which has been done to MANY
II hol 81, of the great railroad systems
OF the country by the way in which
lney nave been financed and their own
nisunf.Ve interests subordinated to
the i2.erests of the men who financed
them. and OF other business enterprises
Whlch those men wished to promote
Ire country is ready. therefore. to ac-
cept. and accept with relief, as well as
approval, a law which will confer on
tie Interstate Commerce commission
the power to superintend and regl,1ate
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 courtrv
for Increased n improved facilities of
transportation. We cannot POSTPONE
o,tSn, in tJt, ,,,o{{1. .I,--. 49,
the railroads exposed to many serious
handicaps and hazards; and the pros
Derity of the railroads and the pros
perlty of the country are in%separably
connected. Upon this question, those
who are chiefly responsible for he
actual management of the railroads
have spoken very plainly and very
earnestly. with a purpose we ought to
be quick to accept. 1t will be one step.
and a very important one, toward he
necessary separation of the business of
production from the business of trans
portation.
Defining Antitrust Law,
"The business of the country awaits
also, has long awaited and has suffered
because it could not obtain further and
more explicit legislative definition Of
the policy n meaning Of the existing
antitrust law. Nothing hampers BUSH
1883 linz ullCS IdiilS. NOLuil1S QauntS
Or discourages it like the necessity to
take chances, to run the risk of falling
under the condemnation of the law be-
fore it can make sure just what the
Jaw is. Surely we are sufficiently ia
miliar with the actual processes and
methods Of monopoly and of the many
hurtful restraints Of trade to make
definition possible, at any rate UP to
the limits of what experience mas dis
closed. These practices, being now
a~bundantly disclosed, can be explicitly
item by item forbidden by statute
in such terms as viii! practically elm
mate uncertainty. the law itself and the
penalty being made equally plain.
Trade Commission.
And the business men of the country
desire something more than that the
menace of legal process in these mat
tiers be made explicit and ineligible,
They desire the advice. the definite
guidance n information which can
he supplied by an administrative 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 monopoly
or in any sort to assume control Of
business as if the government made it
self responsible. 1t demands such a
commission only as an Indispensable
instrument of information and pub
lfcity, as a clearing house for the facts
by which both the public mind and the
managers of great business undertake
49, - 49, - AA - - So