Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1914-01-27

left in wholesome combination For
tunately. no measures of sweeping OF
novel change are necessary. 1t will be
understood that our object is not tC
unsettle business or anywhere serious
ly to break it's 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 it. What we have to do can
be done in new spirit, in thoughtful
moderation. without revolution of an
untoward kind.
Private Monopoly intoierable
We are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intoler
able. and our program is founded upon
that conviction. 1t will be compre-
| hensive but not a radical or unaccept-
able program, and these are its items,
the changes which opinion deliberately
sanctions and for which business
waits.
1T awaits with acquiesence in the
4
fectually prohibit and prevent such
interlockings OF the personnel OF the
direetorates 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 one and the same, those who sell
and those who buy but the same per-
| sons trading with one another under
/ different names and in different COM
| binations, aud those whose affect to
compete. in fact partners and masters
of some whole field of business. Suf-
| ficient time should be allowed, Of
! 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 it's behoof. 1t win bring
new men, new energies, new spirit
OF initiative, new blood into the man
agement of our great business enter
prises 1t will open the field of in
dustrial development and origination
to scores OF men who have been
obliged to serve when their abilities
entitled them to direct. Ii will inn
mensely hearten the young men com
ing on and viii greatly enrich the
business activities of the whole coun-
| try.
Harm and Injustice Done.
I'm the second place. business men,
as we'll 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 10 promote.
THE country is ready therefore to
| accept and accept with relief as well
| as approval, law which will confer
upon the interstate commerce com
mission the power TO superintend an6
| regulate the financial opera tons by
which the railroads are henceforth to
| be supplied with the money they need,
| for their proper development TO meet
| the rapidly growing requirements or
! the country for increased and I'M
proved facilities of transportation. We
cannot postpone action in this matter
without leaving the railroads exposed
| 10 many serious handicaps and haz-
ards, and the prosperity of the rail-
roads and the prosperity of the coun-
try are Inseparably connected. Upon
this question those who are chiefly
responsible for the actual manage.
ment and operation of the railroads.
have spoken very plainly and very
earnestly, with purpose we ought tn
be quick to accept 1t. 1t will be one step
and a very important one, toward tho
necessary separation of the business
of production from the business OF
transportation.
| The business of the country awaits
| also, has long awaited and has sui.
fered because it could not obtain fur
Their and more explicit legislative def
milton of the policy and meaning OF
| the existing antitrust laws. Nothing
| hampers business like uncertainty.
| Nothing daunts or discourages it like
the necessity TO take chances, to run
the risk of falling under the condem-
nation OF the law before it can make
! sure just what the law is
Definition Now Possible.
Surely we are sufficiently familiar
with the actual processes and meth
DDS OF monopoly and of the many
| hurtful restraints of trade to make
| definition possible, at any rate up to
! the limits of what experience has dis
| closed. These practices, being now
abundantly disclosed, can be explic-
| lily and item by item, forbidden b.
statute in such terms as will prae-
tically eliminate uncertainty, the law
1
| equally plain.
And the business men of the
country desire something more than
that the menace of legal process il
these matters be ms de explicit and IL
telligible. They desire the advice, the
definite guidance and information
which can be supplied by an admin
| istrative body, an interstate trade
| commission.
The opinion OF the country would
| instantly approve OF such commits
sion. 1t would not wish 10 see Il en-
powered to make terms with monoIl
oily or in any sort to assume contrib
of business. as If the government
made itself responsible. 1t demands
such a commission only as an lndis.
| pensible instrument OF information
and publicity. as a clearing house for
| tho facts hv which bofh the rubip