Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-18
us a government-owned merchant
AS To the Corporations.

us a government-owned merchant
marine.
AS To the Corporations.
"Our policy in this respect is SO
short-sighted, so absolutely stupid,
that all men are beginning to realize
how handicapped our country Is In
this respect, both in its domestic and
foreign trade. The wonder is that
with the incompetent, out of date, hit
and-miss methods of our Federal
Government, in regard to the business
interests of this country during recent
years, we as businessmen and mer-
chants have been able to achieve as
much success as we have achieved.
If our national policy towards busl-
ness had been as intelligent, up to
date and far-sighted as that of other
countries where business is encour-
aged and fostered, our prosperity to-
day would be far more permanent
and many times greater than 1t is. NO
country that was not doubly blessed
with natural resources could possibly
survive the wretched Federal mis-
MANAGEMENT that has existed in busi'
ness affairs in this country during the
past few years. Practically all our
lack of prosperity is chargeable to
Federal mismanagement that has
| existed in business affairs in this
] country during the past few years
Practically all our lack of prosperity
| is chargeable to Federal mismanage-
ment and to political interference in
one form or another.
II, for one, believe that there is
only one sensible, satisfactory way to
dispose of the trust question, and that
| is by legislation which will create
corporations and supervise them in
the following manner:
A Solution for the Trust Question.
INf ntgrh a nCfn H.
ment by the Federal Government of
competent business court, board or
commission, with power to create
interstate and international corpora
tions, in place of having them created
as now, by some one of our forty
eight separate states.
Second: Requiring that any
group of men desiring to organize a
business concern intending to do busi-
ness in our various States and foreign
countries go to said court in Wash
ington and obtain a charter.
'Third: Requiring that before the
granting of any such charter the
business court or commission should
be convinced that the proposed bust
ness undertaking was to be conducted
in the public interest and that 1t was
not to restrain trade or acquire private
monopoly.
Fourth: Requiring full publicity
as to the operations of the company,
| for the information of the business
court that, as the company proceeded
with it's business, the court might be
sure that it was not improperly re-
straining trade or acquiring monopoly;
and for the protection of the public,
whose money and labor were to be
employed and whose consumers were
to be served.
Fifth: Requiring that capitaliza-
ton be honest and legitimate and rep
resent a proper value for every dollar
issued in securities.
Sixth: Requiring that violation of
the law or the rules and regulations
of the court be punishable with i'm
prisonment of individuals, exactly as
is the case with National Banks,
whose officers, when guilty of wrong
doing, are punished without disturb
ling the activities of the bank. There
should be more thought of dissolving
a large properly conducted interstate
i and international business, in which
many thousands of people are inter-
ested as stockholders, employees and
; customers, than of dissolving a great
National bank because an officer has
done, something wrong. Such step
should be the very last one resorted
to. Bad practices should be reached
and eradicated either by indicting in
dividuals or by injunction.
"All this could and should be done
either at the time of organization, or
in case of necessity, subsequent to
organization, and not, as is the case
battle, extending from one court to
another and covering a long period of
years.
The Tariff and the Trusts.
1.-THE tariff and the trusts have been
the greatest assets of our politicians
and the greatest liabilities of our
businessmen. When a man could not
be elected to office with the tariff as
an issue, he has been elected with the
trusts as an issue, and vice versa. II
is high time for American business
men to awaken to this condition of af-
fairs and realize that it is up TO them
to take a sufficient interest in public
affairs to see to it that business has
a fair and square opportunity.
with the activities of the great in
dustrial countries of Europe diverted
from industry to war, now is our gol..
bTn broaS Spp8rdfi pfo1ndafion 10 % for @ internationai NAL
trade. What pity that at such a time
we are thinking Of little else and doing
little else in the Industrial line than
making money out of war materials,
doing this when we should be laying
the foundations for bigger, broacer
our wares that are needed in times of
peace; but under our present tarin con-
ditions and because of our lack OF
q business policy which any business
man can understand and safely operate
under, we find ourselves almost help
less. to take advantage OF the unprece-
dented opportunities that offer
Take business Out of Politics
"The tariff, the trusts. and our
merchant marine are all essentially
} business questions and yet they are all
Just as essentially political questions.
They must of necessity be the back
bone of our business prosperity ana
yet for years they have been the very
: center and life of all the activities of
our politicians. This condition of
, things cannot continue provided our