River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-01-29

Private Monopoly is indefensibIe.
We are all agreed that private mo
nopoly is indefensible and intolerable,'
and our programme is founded on that
conviction. 1t will be a comprehen
sive but not radical or unacceptable
programme, and these are it's items
the changes which opinion deliberate
ly sanctions and for which business
waits:
1t waits with acquiescence, 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 prac
tically one and the same; those who
sell and those who buy, but the same
persons trading with one another I'M
der different names and in different
combinations, and those who affect to
compete 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 in
convenience or confusion.
More Than Negative Good.
Such 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 spir-
it's of the great investment banks have
usurped the place which belongs to
Independent industrial management
in it's own behoof. 1t will bring new
men new energies, new spirit of
initiative, new blood, into the manage
ment of our great business enter
prises. 1t will open the field of indus
trial development and origination to
scores of men who have been obliged
to serve when their abilities entitled
them to direct. 1t will immensely
hearten the young men coming on and
will greatly enrich the business activi-
ties of the whole country.
In the second place, business men,
as well as those who direct public af-
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 financed and
their own distinctive interests sub
ordinated to the interests of those who
financed them and of other business
enterprises which those men wished
to promote.
Country Ready for Legislation.
The country is ready, therefore, to
accept, and accept with relief, as we'll
as approval, 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 to meet
the rapidly growing requirements of
the country for increased and i'm
proved facilities of transportation.
We cannot postpone action in this
matter without leaving the railroads
exposed to many serious handicaps
and hazards; and the prosperity of
the railroads and the prosperity of the
country are inseparably connected.
Upon this question those who are
chiefly responsible for the actual man
agement and operation of the rail
roads have spoken very plainly and
very earnestly with a purpose we
ought to be quick to accept. 1t will
be one step and very important one,
toward the necessary separation of
the business Of production from the
business of transportation.
Business Has Suffered.
The business of the country awaits,
also. has long awaited and has suffer
ed because it could not obtain, further
and more explicit legislative defini-
ton of the policy and meaning of the
existing antitrust law. Nothing ham
pers business like uncertainty. Moth
ing daunts or discourages it like the
necessity to take chances, to run the
risk of falling under the condemnation
of the law before it can make sure
Just what the law is. Surely we are
sufficiently familiar 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 eX-
perience has disclosed These prac-
tees, being now abundantly disclosed,
can be explicitly and item by item
forbidden by statute in such terms as
will practically eliminate uncertainty
the law itself and the penalty being
made equally plain.
And the business men of the coun-
try desire something more than that
the menace of legal process in these
matters be made explicit and intel
Iigible. They desire the advice, the
definite guidance and information
which can be supplied by an admin
istrative body, an interstate trade
commission.
Country Would Approve.
The opinion of the country would
instantly approve of such commits
sion. 1t would not wish to see it en-
powered to make terms with monopo-
ly or in any sort to assume control of
business, as if the government made
itself responsible. It demands such
a commission only as an indispensa-
Bile instrument of information and
publicity, as a clearing house for the
Winona to Be Gretna Green.
La Crosse, Wis-Winona will con-
tioue IN he tbe GretT1a Green of La