The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-01-22
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
(Continued from Page ~
Not to Unsettle Business.

or anywhere seriously 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 industry against
the forces that have disturbed 1t.
What we have to do can be done IN
q new spirit, in thoughtful modera-
ton, without revolution of any unto
ward kind.
We are all agreed that "private
monopoly is indefensible and tol-
cradle and our program is founded
on that conviction. 1t will be COM
parative not a radical or unaccept-
able program and these are It's
items, the change which opinion de-
iberately sanctions and for which
business waits:
1t waits with acquiescence, IN the
first place, for laws which will Ell
fectually prohibit and prevent such
jaterlocking of the personnel or
the directorates of great corporations
banks, railroads., industrial, COM
mercial and public service bodies
as in effect result in making those
who borrow and those who lend prac-
tically one and the same; those who
sell and those who buy but the same
persons trading with one another I'M
der different names and in different
combination, and those who affect
to complete, in fact partners and
masters of some whole field OF busl-
ness. Sufficient time should be al
lowed, of course, in which to effect
these changes of organization with
out inconvenience or confusion.
Will Invite New Energy.
Such prohibition will work much
more than 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 be-
longs to independent industrial man
agement working in it's own behoof.
1t will bring new men, new energies
a new spirit of incitiative, new blood,
INTO the management OF our great
business enterprises. 1t will open
the field of industrial development
and Origination to scores Of men VINO
have been obliged to serve when their
abilities entitled them to direct. 1t
will immensely hearten the young
men coming on and will greatly en-
rich the business activities or the
whole country.
In the second place, business men
as we'll as those who direct public
affairs 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
uhe way in which they have been
financed and their own distinctive
interests subordinated to the inter-
ests Of the men who financed them
and of other business enterprises
which those men wished to promote.
Country Ready for Change.
The country is ready, therefore, to
accept, and accept with relief, as we'll
as. approve, law which will confer
on the interstate commerce commits
sion, the power to superintend 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 require
meuts Of the country for increased
and improved facilities Of transpor-
tatiOn We cannot postpone action in
This matter without leaving the rail-
roads exposed to many serious han
dio8ps and hazards; and the prosper
ity of the country are inseparably
connected.
Upon this question those who are
chiefly responsible for the actual
management and operation o. the
railroads have spoken very plainly
and very earnestly, with purpose
we ought to be quick to accept. 1t
VIII be: one: step and very import
attn one, toward the necessary sepa-
rati0n' of; THE business of production
from the business of transportation.
The business Of the country awaits
also, has long waited, and has suf-
fefed because it could not obtain fur
Their and more explicit legislative |
definition of the policy and meaning |
Of the existing antitrust law.
Uncertainty Hampers Business.
Nothing hampers business like un-
certainty. Nothing daunts or dis
courages like the necessity to take
chances. to rum the risk OF falling
under the condemnation of the law
before it can be made sure just what
that law is. Surely we are sufficient
~ familiar with the actual processes
md methods of monopoly and or the
many hurtful restraints Of trade to
make definition possible, at any rate
up to the limits of what experience
aas disclosed. can be explicitly and
TEN by item forbidden by statute in
such terms as will practically elimi-
late uncertainty, the law itself and
he penalty being made equally plain.
And the business men of the cOun-
ny desire something more than that
he menace of legal process in these
matters be made explicit and intelli-
,ible. They desire the advice. the
fef1Eite guidance and information
which can be supplied by an admins
rative body and interstate trade
commission.
The opinion of the country would
approve of such commits
ion. It would not wish to see it
empowered to make terms with mo-
lDpoiY or in any sort to assume con-
tnL of business, as if the govern
nent made itself responsible.
It demands such commission on
y as an indispensable instrument OF