Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-01-22

w AsAcA"i oAA VIVA
business of production from the bust
ness of transportation.
1.-THE business of the country awaits
also, has long awaited and has suffer
ed because 1t could not obtain, further
and more explicit legislative definition
of the policy and meaning of the exist
| ing antitrust law. Nothing hampers
business like uncertainty. Nothing
daunts or discourages it like the nee
| essity to take chances, to run the risk
of falling under the condemnation OF
the law before 1t can make sure 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 experience has dis
closed. These practices. being now
abundantly disclosed, can be explicitly
and item by item forbidden by statute
in such terms as will practically elm
mate 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 intelli-
gible. They desire the advice, the
definite guidance and information
trative body, an interstate trade CON-
mission.
THE opinion of the country would
instantly approve of such commits
sion. 1t would not wish to see 1t en-
powered to make terms with monopoly
or in any sort to assume control of
business, as If the government made
itself responsible> 1t demands such a
commission only as an Indispensable
instrument OF information and public
ity, as a clearing house for the facts
by which both the public mind and
the managers of great business under
takings should be guided, and as an
instrumentality for doing justice to
business where the processes of the
courts or the natural forces of correc-
ton outside the courts are inadequate
to adjust the remedy to the wrong in
way that will meet all the equities
and circumstances of the case.
producing industries, for example,
which have passed the point up to
which combination may be consistent
with the public interest and the free
dom Of trade, cannot always be dis
sected into their component units as
readily as railroad companies or SIM
liar organizations can be. Their dis
solution by ordinary legal process may
oftentimes involve financial conse-
quences likely to overwhelm the Sc
curly market and bring upon 1t break
down and confusion. There ought to
be an administrative commission cap
able of directing and shaping such cor
receive processes, not only in aid of
the courts but also by independent sug-
gestion, if necessary.
"Inasmuch as our object and the
spirit of our action in these matters is
to meet business half way in its pro-
cesses of self-correction and disturb it's
legitimate course as little as possible,
we ought to see to it, and the judgment
of practical and sagacious men of af-
fairs everywhere would applaud us iii
we did see to it. that penalties and
punishments should fall. not upon bust
ness itself, to it's confusion and inter
ruption, but upon the individuals who
use the instrumentalities of business
to do things which public policy and
sound business practice condemn
Every act of business is dork at the
command CT upon the initiative of
some ascertainable person or group of
persons. TT csc should be held indi-
responsible and the punish
ment should fall Upon them. not upon
the business organization Of which
they MAKE illegal use. 1t should b.;
one of the main objects of oar leeisla-
ticn to dives: such persons OF their
Cloak ard deal with them
as with those who do not represent
their co :porat'ors, but merely by tie.
liberate intention break tn, Law |
Business men the country through
would, am sure, applaud US if we
were to take effectual steps 10 see that
the officers and directors of great bust |!
ness bodies were prevented from
bringing them and the business of the
country into disrepute and danger
"Other questions remain which will !;
need very thoughtful and practical
treatment. Enterprises, in these mod
ern days of great individual fortunes,
are often-times interlocked. not by !
being under the control of the same
directors, but by the fact that the
greater part of their corporate stock is
owned by a single. person or group
of persons who are in some way init
mately related in interest. We are
agreed, take it, that holding COM
panies should be prohibited, but what |
Of the controlling private ownership Of
individuals or actually cooperativeI
groups of individuals?
Shall the private owners of capital
stock be suffered to be themselves in |
effect holding companies? We do not
wish, suppose, to forbid the purchase
Of stocks by any person who pleases
to buy them in such quantities as he
can afford, or in any way arbitrarily
to limit the sales of stocks to bona
fide purchasers. Shall we require the
owners of stock, when their voting
power in several companies which !
ought to be independent Of one anoth-
ar would constitute actual control, to
make election in which of them they
will exercise their right to vote? This !
question l venture for your considera-