The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-01-21
Other Questions.

Other Questions.
Other questions remain which will
need very thoughtful and practical
treatment. Enterprises, in these
modern days Of great individual for
tunes, are oftentimes 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, I take il, that holding
companies should be prohibited. but
what Of the controlling private owner
ship Of individuals or actually CO.
operative 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
stocks by any person who pleases to
buy them in such quantities as he can
afford. or in any way arbitrarily to
limit the sale of stocks to bona fide
purchasers. Shall we require the
owners of stock. when their voting
power in several companies which
ought to be Independent of one
another would constitute actual con-
troll, to make election in which OF
them they will exercise their right to
vote? This question l venture for
your consideration. ~
There is another matter in which
imperative considerations of Justice
and fair play suggest thoughtful RENE
dial action. Not only do many of the
combinations effected or sought TO be
effected in the industrial world work
an injustice upon the public in gem
eral; they also directly and seriously
injure the individuals who are put out
of h1EinaSs in m
another by the many dislodging and
discriminating forces of com hination.
| hope that we shall agree In giving
private individuals who claim to have
been injured by these processes the
right to found their suits for redress
upon the facts and judgments proved
and entered In suits by the govern
ment where the government has upon
its own initiative sued the combina-
tons complained OF and won its suit,
and that the statute of limitations
shall be suffered to run against such
litigants only from the date OF the
conclusion of the governments action,
II is not fair that the private litigant
should be obliged to set up and estab-
fish again the facts which the govern
ment has proved. He cannot afford,
he has not the power, to make use of
such processes of inquiry as the gov
tFHIIieitt mas CpInIIlanQ OF. mus Snaii
individual justice be done while the
processes of business are rectified and
squared with the general conscience.
l have laid the case before you, no
doubt as 1t lies in your own mind, as
1t lies in the thought OF the country.
What must every candid man say OF
the suggestions I have laid before
you, of the plain obligations Of which
have reminded you? That these are
new things for which the country Is
not prepared? No; but that they are
old things. now familiar, and must, Of
course, be undertaken II we are to
square our laws with the thought and
desire OF the country. Until these
are done, conscientious business men
the country over will be unsatisf1ed.
They are in these things our mentors
and colleagues We are now about
to write the additional articles of our
constitution OF peace, the peace that
is honor and freedom and prosperity