Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-01-08
~Seeking>Then Bearings

Occasionally in the short intervals of relaxation
Tom his arduous labors at administering the exect
tive and legislative departments of the government,
President Wilson has time to assure the business
men of the country that there is no cause whatever
for them to be alarmed. With a. paternal smi1e~ot
perfect confidence the President tells men of affairs
that he sits in the executive chair and that all is
we'll with the country. Those who express, anxiety,
or uneasiness are admonished by the former head OF
Princeton to keep busy and have the utmost faith.
The shortest road to the Presidents disfavor is for
an employer to cut down his working force on the
plea that business does not longer justify normal
activities. Such an employer is regarded as a can
didate for that smythical gallows erected by the Pres
ident, a year or so ago, for all those who aid an"
abet hard times"
: Before %dismissing Congress and taking his depart
ure for the South for rest and reflection, President
Wilson looked over the industrial field and expressed
satisfaction that there was a disposition among large
business concerns to "reorganize' themselves in com,
pliance with the Sherman antitrust law. evidently
this prospect is highly gratifying to the head Of 80
nation, as it is to the nation itself. In an unofficial
statement the President "let it be known that there
is a very general disposition to i%njuire what the law
Is" among business men, who desire to comply with
the law if they can find out just what they are to do.
Thus far there has been no evidence that business
men generally, big and little, do not want to comply.
with the law. The whole trouble is that nobody
knows just what the laws are or what they mean.
This ignorance extends to the men who made them,
and to the officers entrusted with their enforcement
Ever since the Sherman act was passed land it was
passed by a Republican Congress and signed by q
Republican. President) there has, been confusion ancs
~perplexity about its meaning. Those Who framed the
act and the President who signed it laid Gown very
strict lines defining its meaning, and this definition
has been confirmed by a supreme court decision.
The Sherman law would be equal to all the demands
OF Justice and reason were those now in power actu.
ated by a patriotic desire to allow business to live.
No wonder business men are asking about the Sher-
man law, for it has been construed and twisted by
the present administration until nobody KNOWS with
any certainty what it means. 1t is arrant demag0gy
to assume that the great mass of business men do
not want to obey the law. 1t is to their interests
to obey it. The industrial and financial establish
ments that willfully do wrong are comparatively few,
Just as there are comparatively few ministers vino
wander from the path of r%ectitude, or citizens who
violate the laws against crime. There is nothing
are inquiringwllat is expected of them. With an ac.
ministration that is not sure what it is doing, with q
sudden increase of new statutes and regulations, ana
with a legal department that is laboring in a thick
fog, 1t is no wonder that business interests are crop
Ing about, trying to find the safe path to tread.