Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1914-01-22

solution by ordinary legal process
may oftentimes involve financial con-
sequences 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.
1nasmuch 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 it's legitimate course as little as
possible. we ought to see to it. and
the judgment of practical and saga
cious men of affairs everywhere
would applaud us if we did see to it.
that penalties and punishments should
fall. not upon business itself, to its
confusion and interruption, bat upon
the individuals who use the instru-
mentalities of business to do things
which public policy and sound busi
ness practice condemn. Every act of
business is done at the command or
upon the initiative of some ascertain
able person or group of persons.
These should be held individually re.
sponsible and the punishment should
fall upon them. not upon the business
organization of which they make il
legal use. 1t should be one of the
main objects of our legislation to di-
vest such persons of their corporate
cloak and deal with them as with
those who do not represent their cor
porations, but merely ny deliberate
intention break the law. Business
men the country through would. | am
sure, applaud us if we we're to take
effectual steps to see that the Off
GERS and directors of great business
bodies were prevented from bringing
them and the business of the country
into disrepute and danger.
Other questions remain which will
need very thoughtful and practical
treatment. Enterprises. ia 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 q single person or
group of persons who are in some
way intimately related in interest.
We are agreed. l take it, that holding
companies should be prohibited, but
what of the c. trolling private own
ership 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 10
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 an
other would constitute actual control,
to make election in which of them
they will exercise their right to vote?
This question | venture FOR your con-
sideration.
There is another matter in which
imperative considerations of Justice
and fair play suggest thoughtful
remedial 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
general: they also direc tly and SER
iously injure the individuals who are
put out of business in one unfair
way or another by the many dislodg
ing and exterminating foI ces of COM
bination. | 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
ernment has upon its own initiative
sued the combinations 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
Government action. 1t is not fair
that the private litigant should be
obliged to set up and establish again
the facts which the Government has
proved. He can not afford, he has
not the power, to make use of such
processes of inquiry as the Govern
ment has command of. Thus shall
individual justice be done while the
processes of business are rectifled
and squared with the general con-
science.
have laid the case before you, no
doubt as 1t lies in your own mind. as
it lies in the thought of the country.
What must every candid man say OF
the suggestions have laid before
you. of the plain obligations of which
| have reminded you? That these
are new things for which the coun-
try is not prepared? No; but that
they are old things, now familiar, and
must of course be undertaken if we