American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1914-02-05

t4IdiCiJ. uO DutdtuIGh Ol sweeping VI
novel change are necessary. 1t will be
understood that our object is not to
unsettle business or anywhere serious
ly to break its established courses
athwart. On the contrary, we desire
the laws we are now about to pass to
be the bulwarks and safeguards of In
dustry against the forces that have
disturbed 1t. What we have to do can
be done In a new spirit, in thoughtful
moderation. without revolution Of an
u%ntoward kind.
Private Monopoly intoIerable
I'VE are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intoler-
able, and u program is founded upon
hat conviction. It will be a compre-
hensive but not a radical or u%naccept-
able program, and these are its items,
the changes which opinion deliberately
sanctions and for which business
waits.
1T awaits with acquiesence in the
first place for laws which will eff
fectually prohibit and prevent such
i~nterlockings of the personnel of the
di%rectorates of great corporations
banks and railroads, industrial. com
mercial and public service bodies-as
in effect result in making those who
borrow and those who lend practical
ly n and the same. those who sell
and those who buy but the same per-
IONS trading with one another under
different names and In different COM
binations, and those whose affect to
compete, in fact, partners and masters
of some whole field of business. Suf-
fcient time should be allowed, I OF
course, in which to effect these
changes of organization without incon-
venience or confusion.
Such a prohibition will work much
more than a mere negative good by
correcting the serious evils which
have arisen because, for example, the
men who have been the directing
spirits of the great investment banks
have usurped the place which belongs
to independent industrial management
working in its behoof. 1t will bring
new men, new energies, a new spirit
of initiative, new blood into the
agement of our great business enter
prises. It will open the field of in
dustrial development and or~igination
to scores of men who have been
obliged to serve when their abilities
entitled them to direct. 1t will Inn
mensely hearten the young men COM
ing on and will greatly enrich the
business activities of the whole coun-
try.
Harm and Injustice Done.
I'm the second place, business men,
as well as those who direct public af-
fairs now recognize, and recognize
with painful clearness, the great harm
and injustice which has been done to
many, if not all. of the great railroad
systems of the country by the way
in which they have been financed and
their own distinctive interests subordi-
mated to the interests Of the men
who financed them and OF other bust
ness enterprises which those men
wished to promote.
THE country is ready therefore to
accept and accept with relief as well
as approval, a law which will confer
upon the interstate commerce com
mission the power to s~uperintend and
regulate the financial operations by
which the railroads are henceforth to
be supplied with the money they need
for their proper development to meet
the rapidly growing requirements OF
the country for increased and i'm.
, proved facilities of transportation. We
! cannot postpone action in this matter
without leaving the railroads exposed
TO many serious handicaps n haz
ards; and the prosperity of the rail
roads and the prosperity Of the coun
try are inseparably connected. Upon
this question those h are chiefly
responsible for the actual manage
ment and operation of the railroads
have spoken very plainly and very
earnestly, with a purpose we ought to
be quick to accept 1t. 1t will be one steI
: and a very important one. toward the
! necessary separation of the business
, of production from the business o.
transportation
: THE business of the country awaits
also, has long awaited and has suf
fered because it could not obtain fur
: Their and more explicit legislative def
milton of the policy and meaning O
the existing antitrust laws. Nothing
= hampers business like uncertainty
. Nothing daunts OF discourages 1t like
the necessity to tax chances, to rur
the risk OF falling under the condem
nation Of the law before 1t can maxi
sure just what the law is.
Definition Nov Possible.
d Surely we are sufficiently familia.
with the actual processes and meth
g DDS of monopoly and Of the man.
hurtful restraints OF trade to max
definition possible. at any rate up Il
S the limits Of what experience has dis
e closed. These practices. being nov
e ~abundantly disclosed. can be explic
lily and item by item. forbidden b.