Semi-weekly herald. [volume] (Durango, Colo.) 1907-1917, 1914-01-22
as an instrumentality for doing JUS


of connection outside the courts are
inadequate to adjust the remedy to
the wrong in 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 free
dom Of trade, cannot always be dis
sected into their component units, as
readily as railroad companies or sim
liar organizations can be. Their dis
solution by ordinary legal processes
may often times involve financial
consequences, likely to overwhelm the
security market and bring upon it
breakdown and confusion. There
ought to be an administrative COM
mission capable of directing and
shaping such corrective processes, not
only in aid of the courts but also
by independent suggestion if neces-
sary,
"Inasmuch as our object and the
spirit of our action in these matters
is to meet business half way in its
processes of self-correction and dis
turb its legitimate course as little
as possible we ought to see to it, and
the judgment of practical and saga
n "a RI,
would applaud us if we did see to it,
that penalties and punishments
should fall, not upon business itself,
to it's confusion and interruption,
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 is done at the COM
mand or upon the initiative of some
ascertainable person or group of per-
sons. These should be held individ-
ually responsible and the punishment
should fall upon them, not upon the
business organization of which they
make illegal use.
at should be one of the main OBJ
iects Of our legislation to divest such
persons of their corporate cloak and
deal with them as with those who dc
not represent their corporations, but
merely by deliberate intention break
the law. Business men the country
through, would, | am sure, applaud
us if we were to take effectual steps
to see that the officers and direct
ors of great business bodies were
prevented from bringing them and
the business Of the country into dis
repute and danger.
"0ther questions remain which will
need very thoughtful and practical
treatment. Enterprises, in these
modern days of great individual for
tunes are often times interlocked, not
by being under 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 interest
We are agreed, / take it, that hold
ing companies should be prohibited,
but what of the controlling private
ownership of individuals or actually
cooperative groups of individuals?
"Shall the private owners of capital
stock be suffered to be themselves in
effect holding companies? We do
not wish | suppose, to forbid the
purchase of stock by any persons
who pleases to buy them in such
quantities as he can afford, or in any
way arbitrarily to limit the sale of
stocks to bonifide purchasers. Shall
we require the owners of stock,
when their voting power in several
companies which ought to be indie
pendent of one another would consti-
tute actual control, to make election
in which of them they will exercise
their right to vote? This question
venture for your consideration.
There is another matter in which
imperative considerations of justice
and fair play suggest thoughtful
remedial action. Not only do many
of the combinations affected OIL
sought to be affected in the industrial
world work an injustice upon the
-, 1. oil Of la