Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-01-10
Untefmeyer Advocates Pro.
qfam to Secure Industrial
Confidence

Chicago, Jan. 9.-New rules for the
new business game are the only re.
NEEDLES for the the carpet bag" sys.
tenn Of industrial management which
obtains in this country, according tc
Samuel Untermyer of New York city
In a speech before the Illinois Manu-
features association at the Hotel La
Sale yesterday. The subject Of his
au~ress was "A Legislative Program
TO Restore BUSINESS Ereedom and
Confidence"
Mr.. Untermyer did not blame the
dig business interests for their lille.
gal combinations. They were forced
to such methods, he said, more by
the e%xigencies of the system, now
archaic, whic hthe supreme court has
upheld. Mr.. Untermyer asked for
constructive legislation to make the
game legal under the rules.
Specific remedies proposed we're:
The creation of an industrial COM
mission to administer the law as in
terpreted by the courts in really dis
solving illegal combinations; to re-
gula.e bond and stock issues, and to
reorganize bankrupt companies: the
enlargement Of the powers of the
interstate commerce commission to
include supervision over railroad
stock aud bond issues; the preven-
ton CT certain kinds of holdings ON
panies; the Equalization of the stock
exc ange in such a manner that sup
elvision will ne possible. and the
abolition Of i%nterlocking d~irectorates.
Behind Our Countries.
I'VE need laws regulating corpora
TONS" the speaker said. "You gen.
tlemen will be inclined to say: More
Laws. For Heavens sake, let bust.
$ rest. But l tell you it is a mis-
take to suppose, that we ever have
had proper. laws; We are q half
century behind |etller countries in
u solution OF the struggle between
capital and labor. You have here q
buccaneer system sof corporate man
agement. IL ...
Every state is compelled by the
competition with other states for bust
ness to- make loose regulating laws.
And every business nan is putting
his nose. into the statute books to find
out where there is the least regula-
ton. Each state 9isf competing with
the others in laxity of administration,
to get the fees Of some corporation
which does not come e the state
except to hang a s1.25 tin sign in
some obscure corner of the capital"
Disregard Wall Street.
Mr.. Untermyer urged patience and
a disregard for the howlings of Wall
street, in the f%urtherance of the pro-
gressive legislation. OIL,
"Wall street is a VIGOROUSLY small
he said. Inhabitants
of Wall street can't-see as far as Full
ton street. Our recent experience
with the currency bill should once
more remind us<that we must not per
nit ourselves to be moved by the
cries that come from a very small
but boisterous corner Of the country,
where the special interests are con-
centrated. @
"They always display these false
distress signals at every attempted
economic reform. It is characteristic
of the blindness and timidity of pre-
capital that Impending legisla-
ton, like all innovations, and restrict
ions, however wholesome, should be
regarded with fear and u%nreasoning
dread. as il our legislators could have
any other wish or purpose than to
safeguard legitimate enterprisey
As a beginning in the regulation of
business Mr.. sUntermyer would wipe
the slate clean of earlier violations
and illegal combinations"
Praises Associations Slate.
II admire the stand taken by your
body in asking the interstate com
merce commission to raise railroad
rates. You will have to give the rail
reads opportunities to give you good
service, and you should disregard
their watered stocks of earlier years.
The securities are now in the hands
of innocent holders and nothing can
be done.
ITS one thing to enforce the law
and a different thing to base upon
that law criminal prosecutions on acts
committed at q time when those acts
were not known to be illegal.
- you should ask me to place the
responsibility for this condition l.
should place it upon the supreme
cour: of the united States. The on
struction they placed upon the Sher-
man law lent encouragement to the
establishment Of trusts"
Continued violations should be
severely punished but there should
be complete amnesty and a clean slate
SO far as concerns criminal prosecu--
items of those iii the past"
Scores Unlimited Competition.
Mr.. Untermyer scored unlimited
competition as dangerous to business.
In his opinion, the industrial and in
terstate" commerce commissions
should be empowered to permit r.
tain kinds of polling and to regulate
cooperation. 4
II say unlimited competition is not
an. economic blessing out an economic
CURSE" be said. "Such a commission
as the proposed industrial commits
sion would in, a decade bring about
such conditions that business would
no longer feel unsettled by every
piece Of impending remedial legisla-