The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-24
unTHK KSANTI-TRUST. LEGISLATION.

things constitute a restraint of trade and will not be permitted.
 They are an effort to give certainty to the Sherman law, which has been made so vague and uncertain by the Supreme court, that no business man, or corporation, can know what is lawful and what unlawful.
 It must be by no means understood that the Wilson bills cover the entire ground of conceiv- able trust legislation. There will always be. in such new territory a twilight zone, in which there will be doubt if the practice complained of, or permitted, ought to be stopped by 2 penal law.
 But, so far as thestatutes go,- they attempt. to forbid practices, or to grant remedies, about. which there is an almost uniform, agreement among statesmen and educated business men.
 The provisions of the Sherman law are to be extended to all the territories of the United States, continental and insular
 Price determinations employed for tn .pur- pose of killing competition are to be forbidden The practice of cutting price in one territory while raising it in another has been one of the favorite weapons of Standard oil. The price of the commodity being cut below the living point the competitor is driven out of business. Then. monopoly increases the price and gets back all that it gave up, and more.
 Nineteen states have already adopted such legislation, which is proof that the Federal leg islation is in accordance with the settled convic elimination.
 Another provision makes it unlawful for a mine owner, or person controlling the sale of the products of mine in commerce, to refuse to sell it's product to responsible person who desires to purchase it
 It is probably true that all strong trusts must ultimately be founded upon some grant of a privilege given by the law making power, or must depend upon the controlsof rights to the raw material taken from the ground
 The steel trust is an example of a gigantic combination with it's feet upon the ground. And this provision is designed to prevent the sup pressfon of competition by control of the raw material of the earth.
 Such contracts are we'll known to business men. They aim to suppress competition by requiring a dealer not to handle the goods of the compet- tor This practice works against the majority of dealers and where it works in favor of a dealer, it operates unfairly to the public, which has the chief ipterestin the matter. Such con tracts have proved a powerful instrument of monopoly, and have contributed enormously to suppress competition and to impose excessive prices upon the public
 The holding company has proved ununiti- gated evil. This is an organization which ac- quires the stocks of other companies, which it holds in it's treasury, selling it's own shares to the public It thus succeeds. in putting many concerns under single control, and effectually acoomplishes a restraint of trade which has us ualIy proved injurious. To the holding com pany is chargeable the additional offense of having contributed to load the public with bill Hons OI S6CurILl6S not F0pF6S6AI6Qs Dy SOunQ values.
 For thezs same reason that holding compan- es are forbidden, it is proposed to forbid inter locking directorates, for such diFectorates bring about an .nnEiue5 restraint, and have played a largeiparts sinvoverchargi the public and in in ckeasing prices.
 The interlocking directorate may be observ- ed as it operates in the railroad systems of the country. Each director being interested in oth- CT railroads and in other industries besides rail- roading has an interest in selling to the railroad the commodities of his other companies at the highest price. How injurious such situation is any business will understand Neverthe- less the interlocking directorate permitted un- der certain conditions, and in certain cases principally to enable the local enterprises in small communities to assist in the management of the local banks in the community.
 The doctrine of personal guilt is to be estab- lished. When the corporation is found guilty of wrong, the officers and directors who dc the wrong will be guilty of misdemeanor anc may be punished.
 Surely nobody will object to the idea tha guilt is personal, nor accept the principle tha five men sitting as board of directors may bt innocent and do things which would make any one of them criminal, if he did them alone.
 These are the principal affirmative change! which President Wilson hopes to make in tho tft4stnlHVs. There are some negative changes such as the exemption of labor unions and as sociations of farmers, which require indepen