The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-01-20
URGES LAW
TO CONTROL
MONOPOLY
Continued from first page.)

Honopoly ana OF the many Hufbiui ~
straints of trade to make definition pos,
sible, at any rate up to the limits Of
what experience has disclosed. These
practices, being now abundantly dis
closed, can be explicitly and item by
item forbidden by statute in such terms
as will practically eliminate uncertain
ty, the law itself and the penalty being
made equally plain.
"And the business men of the country
desire something more than that the
menace of legal process in these matters
be made explicit and Ineligible. They
desire the advice, the definite guidance
4 and information which car be supplied
by an administrative body, an interstate
trade commission.
"The opinion of the country would in
stantly approve OF such commission.
1t would not wish to see it empowered
to make terms with monopoly or in any
sort to assume control of business, as
if the government made itself respon-
sible. 1t demands such commission
only as an indispensable instrument of
information and publicity, as clearing
house for the facts by which both the
public mind and the managers Of great
business undertakings should be guided,
and as an fundamentally for doing JUS
tice to business where the processes of
the courts or the natural forces of cor
rection outside the courts are made
quate to adjust the remedy to the wrong
in a 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 freedom of trade
cannot always be dissected into their
component units as readily as railroad
companies or similar organizations can
be. Their dissolution by ordinary legal
process may oftentimes involve finan-
cial consequences likely to overwhelm
the security market and bring upon it
breakdown and confusion. There ought
to be an administrative commission ca
pable of directing and shaping such cor
receive processes, not only in aid of the
courts but also by independent sugges-
tions, if necessary.
Punish the Individual Offenders.
"lnasmuch as our object and the spir-
it OF our action in these matters is to
meet business half way in its processes
of self-correction and disturb its legiti-
mate course as little as possible, we
ought TO see to it. and .the Judgment
OF practical and sagaeious men OF af-
fairs everywhere would applaud us If
we did see to it, that penalties and
punishment should fall, not upon bust
ness itself, TO its 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 il done at the command or upon
the initiative of some aseertainable per-
son or group of persons. These should
be held individually responsible and the
punishment should fall upon them, not
upon the business organization of which
they make illegal use
1T should be one of the main objects
of our legislation to divest such persons
of their corporate cloak and deal with
them as with those who do not repre-
sent their corporations, but merely by
deliberate intention break the law. Bus.
mess men the country through would,
am sure, applaud us If we were to take
effectual steps TO see that the officers
and directors of great business bodies
were prevented from bringing them and
the business of the country into dis
repute and danger.
Interlocking Control.
"0ther questions remain which viii
need very thoughtful and practical treat
ment. Enterprises, in these modern
days of great individual fortunes, are
oftentimes interlocked, not by being I'M
der the control of the same directors,
but by the fact that the greater part
of their corporate stock is owned by
single person or group of persons who
are in some way intimately related in |
We are agreed, / take It, that |
holding companies should be prohibited, |
but what of the controlling private own
ership of individuals or actually co
operative groups of Individuals Shall |
the private owners of capital stock be |
suffered to be themselves in effect hold |
ing companies2 We do not wish, sup |
pose, to forbid the purchase of stocks |
by any person who pleased to buy them |
in such quantities as he can afford, or |
in any way arbitrarily to limit the sale |
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
another would constitute actual control, |
to make elections in which of them they |
viii exercise their right TO vote? This
question | venture for your censidera-
ton.
Suggested by Fair Play.
"There is another matter in which
considerations of justice and
fair play suggest thoughtful remedial
action. Not only do many of the com
binations effected or sought to be eff
fected in the industrial syorld work an
injustice upon the public in general;
they also directly and seriously injure
the individuals who are put out of bust
ness in one unfair way or another by
The many dislodging and exterminating
forces of combination. | hope that we
shall agree in giving private individuals
Who claim to have been injured by these
the right to found their suits
,or redress upon the facts and judgments
proved and entered in suits by the gov
,Tnment where the government has upon
Is own initiative sued the combinations
complained of and won its suit, and
hat the statute of limitations shall be
suffered to run against such litigants
)nly from the date of the conclusion of
he governments action. It is not fair
hat the private litgant should be
obliged to set up and establish again
he facts which the government has