The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1914-01-22

necessary. 1t will be understood tha
cur object is not to unsettle business
or anywhere seriously to break iti
established courses athwart On tht
contrary, we desire the laws we ars
now about to pass to be the bulwarks
and safeguards of industry against
the forces that have disturbed it.
What we have to do can be done in
new spirit, in thoughtful modera-
ton, without revolution of any un-
toward kind.
I'VE are all agreed that private
monopoly is indefensible and intoler-
able and our program is founded on
that conviction 1t will be a compar-
ative but not a radical or unaccept.
able program and these are its items,
the changes which opinion deliber-
ately sanctions and for which bust
ness waits:
1T awaits with acquiescene, in the
first place, for laws which will ef
fectually prohibit and prevent such
inter-locking of the personnel of the
directorates 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 prac
tfcally one and the same, those who
sell and those who buy but the same
persons trading with one another un
der different names and in different
combinations, and those who effect to
compete in fact partners and mas
ters of some whole field of business.
Sufficient time should be allowed, Of
course, in which to effect these
changes of organizations, without in.
convenience or confusion.
Time for Readjustment.
such a prohibition will work
much more than mere negative
good by correcting the serious evils
which have arisen because, for ex-
ample, the men who have been the
directing spirits of the great invest
ment banks have usurped the place
which belongs to Independent indus
trial management working in its own
behalf. 1t will bring new men, new
energies, new spirit of initiative,
new blood, into the management OF
our great business enterprises, de-
velopment and organization to scores
Of men who have been obliged to
serve when their abilities entitled
them to direct. 1t will immensely
hearten the young men coming on
and viii greatly enrich the business
activities of the whole country.
'In the second place, business men
as well as those who direct public af-
fairs now recognize, and recognize
with painful cleaTness, the great
harm and injustice which has been
done to many, if not all of the great
railroad system of the country by the
way in which they have been financ-
ed and their own distinctive interests
subordinated to the interests of the
men who financed them and of other
business enterprises which those men
wished to promote. The country is
ready, therefore, to accept, and ac-
cept with relief as well as approval,
a law which will confer on the inter
state commerce commission the
power to superintend and regulate
the financial operations by which the
railroads are henceforth to be sup
piled with the money they need for
their proper development to meet the
rapidly growing requirements OF the
country for increased and improved
facilities Of transportation. We can
not postpone action in this matter
without leaving the railroads exposed
to 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
to be quick to accept It will be one
step, and very important one to-
ward the separation of business of
production from the business Of pro- /
duction.
To End Uncertainty.
"The business of the country
awaits also, has long awaited and has /
suffered because it could not obtain,
further and more explicit legislative
definition of the policy and meaning
Of the existing antitrust law Moth
ing hampers business like uncer'
Iainty. Nothing daunts or discour'
ages it like the necessity to take
chances, to run the risk OF falling
under the condemnation of the law
before 1t can make sure just what
he law is Surely we are sufficiently
'amiliar with the actual processes
md methods of monopoly and OF the
many QUTLlul RESTRAINTS VI u duO "
make definition possible, at any rate
up to the limits Of what experience
has disclosed These practices, be-
ng now abundantly disclosed, can be
explicitly and item by item forbid.
len by statute in such terms as viii
eliminate uncertainty, the
aw itself and the penalty being made
equally plain.
And the business men of the
desire something more than
hat the menace Of legal process in
he matter be made explicit and
Ineligible. They desire the advice
he definite guidance and information
which can be supplied by an admins
rative body, an interstate trade com
mission.
'sThe opinion of the country
would instantly approve of such
It would not wish to
zee it empowered to make terms with
monopoly or in any way to assume
control of business, as if the govern
nent made itself responsible.