Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-12

Onlys IL QOeS not go 10 IIe extent
of allowing an individual to bring
about dissolution of a combination
or the breaking up of a monopoly.
mo. 2 is the so-called definitions
bill.
at is modelled partly after the first
of the Seven Sisters 1t makes di-
rectors, officers and agents of cor
porations guilty If they authorize, or
| der or do any of the prohibited acts
and a paragraph relating to holding
companies is to be added
Number is the so-called inter-
| locking directorate bill.
1T forbids those who as individu-
ais or as officers or directors of cor
! porations are engaged in making or
selling railroad cars, locomotives or
rails; structural steel, or in mining
or selling coal, or who are directors of
O. bank or trust company to act as
directors or other officers or en-
ployes Of any railroad or other public
service corporation engaged in inter-
state commerce.; II forbids interlock-
ing directorates, office holding and
employment in banks In the Federal
reserve system and shuts out of Fed
eral bank directorates private bank
ers and directors in State banks and
! trust companies.
"Interlocking directorate provisions
lend themselves readily to the critl-
cism that stock control will permit
the election of dummy directors. If
that criticism seems to be welghty
enough 1t will be a simple matter to
! legislate with reference to stock con-
troll Of competing corporations.
Federal Reserve Power.
at has been suggested that so far
as banks are concerned 1t may be
we'll to give the power to the Federal
| Reserve Board to correct the evils
of interlocking directorates, specify
ing merely in broad terms the ma
ture of the practises aimed at.
| 1.-THE Interstate Trade Commission
bill creates a commission Of five
members, abolishes the bureau of cor
porations and merges it into the COM
mission; gives the commission full
power to investigate corporations en-
| gagged in Interstate and foreign COM
merce, except common carriers, and
requires the United States District
| Court to enforce the orders of the
commission calling for information;
gives the commission power on COM
| plant or on its own initiative to in
Nestigate alleged violations of the
| Sherman act; the encouragement
may call upon the commission for
such an investigation; the court in
which suit by the government Is
pending under the act may call for
the aid of the commission on any
aspect of the litigation or of the pro-
posed decree; the commission shall
report annually to Congress, giving
information and data collected and
making recommendations.
"One interesting bill clearly based
on the assumption that the Supreme
Court has held that reasonable re-
straints of trade are not in violation
of the Sherman act, provides that the
burden OF proving reasonableness
shall be on the defendant and that
certain facts being proved the re-
straint shall be presumed conclusive
ly to be unreasonable. while other
facts shall create REPUTABLE pre-
sumption of unreasonableness.
Unreasonable Restraints.
Another bill based on the same
restraints of trade unreasonable.
THE judiciary committee has been
! for weeks listening to the views of
! business men, lawyers and philan-
thropists, no two of whom agree
Some say that the Sherman law
should not be disturbed even by
definition of acts in violation of it..
Others that more definition than is
suggested should be attempted"
After detailing an interesting num-
Der of suggestions given by those who
had appeared before the committee,
Congressman Mccoy concluded by
saying:
Business men, the publlc-at-la large
and Legislators should all try not to
lose their heads in the matter. Don't
get alarmed by sensational reports
of what Congress intends to do
There ig diGnnGifinp Ia eFcg
to run amuck. Let us all remember
that 1t is equally foolish to think that
what is is right as TO think that what
is is wrong. There is middle
ground.
Remember that not long ago the
Sherman act did not enjoy its present
popularity, and do not forget the dire
prophecies that almost every mo-
mentous piece of legislation has given
rise to the resumption of specie pay
ments, the creation of the Interstate
| Commerce Commission, the passage
/ of the Sherman act, and only just
now the Federal reserve act. But no
disaster has come from any of them
quite the contrary.
I'VE are all too apt to get into the
frame of mind where we think that
the comfort of the generations of men
I VINO preceded us was not distributed
as ours is. A great novelist who was
also Philosopher truly said, 'democ-
racy is almost synonymous with
Change. Democracy never rests. 1t
Is well said. Man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward The time
when the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest won't come
until after death"
Slayden ON RefOrmers.
Congressman Slayden said in part:
For nearly twenty years | have
been member of legislative bodies.
have seen the industry of law-ma k
ing grow from a careful, slow and
proper response to a real and earnest
demand from the people for laws to
meet changed conditions into an out
pouring of statutes for the regula-
ton and control of the individual,
and for the regulation and restriction
of business, until the liberties of the
citizen have been nearly all taken
away and the prosperity of trade seri-
ously menaced.
AS we Inherited the common law
of England which is common sense
hammered out of centuries of expert
ence one would think that practical
ly the only new legislation needed
would be such statutes as the changed
conditions of modern life made neces-
sary. The rights of man had been
rather carefully guarded in a num-
her of eraat and historic documents