The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-14
10 This q Genuine Utterance Of Pres.
ident Wilson's?

Mr.. NATHAN Boone WILLIAMS, n
lawyer of Washington. is the author of
an article in the Federdl Trade Re-
porter for August 1. in which he
quotes opinions alleged by him to have
been expressed Gin a magazine article
on Trust Crusading. by WOODROW
WILSON. published in 1905"
In 1908 Or. WOODROW WILSON was
president of Princeton University. II
at that time he had begun to expert
ence the impulses of political amhi-
tion-or. in other words, II he had
then begun to contemplate the posi-
bility Of devoting his great abilities
to the service of the public and the
uplift of humanity-the secret had
been whispered To the evening mir
only In the most secluded corners OF
the academic grove. JAMES SMITH. Jr..
Of Newark had not yet extended in the
direction Of Princeton an open purse
held in a large and generous hand.
Colonel GEORGE HARVEY had not yet
succeeded In convincing even the New
Jersey public that he had detected in
the intellect and heart Of this shrink
ing scholar all the qualities OF po-
lit!cal desirablllty. Such was the
detached and felicitous position OF
WOODROW WILSON, the philosopher,
when he wrote, II he did write them,
these paragraphs attributed TO him
BY Mr.. NATHAN BOONE WILLIAMS Of
Washington, d. c.:
"A passion for regulative legislation
seems TO have taken possession of the
country of late but II came upon II so
suddenly, so much more like an i'm
pulse OF tmpatience than like a deliber-
ate purpose, that there Ii every indi-
cation that the careful thinking upon
which It should have been founded will
succeed II after It has spent its force,
rather than accompany and give form
and direction to II.
I'VE have passed laws forbidding
such combinations and such practices
as would virtually constitute monopo-
lies and ave attempted to enforce them.
We have forbidden discrimination In
freight rates by railway companies and
ave tried to detect and punish them.
We a gone further still n en-
deavored to prescribe passenger rates
as well. undertaking TO look inside rail-
way business and determine through
public commissions what rates It is
equitable for them to charge.
governmental control. which we are
undertaking so extensively and with so
light a heart. sets up, not a reign IF
law. but a reign Of discretion and In
dividual judgme on tho part OF gov
ernmental officials In the regulation OF
the business Of stock companies owned
by innumerable private individuals and
supplying the chief investments Of thou
sands OF communities.
81 can see no radical difference be-
tween governmental ownership and gov
ernmental regulation of this discretion
airy kind. Regulation by commission IL
not regulation by law. hut control ac-
cording to tho discretion OF govern
mental officials. Regulation by law IL
judicial, by fixed and definite rule,
whereas regulation by commission Is an
affair Of business sense. of the compre-
hension and thorough understanding Of
complex and various bodies Of business.
There is no logical stopping place be-
tween that and tho actual conduct Of
business enterprises by the Govern
ment.
such methods OF regulation. It may
he safely predicted. will sooner or later
be completely discreditcd by expert
encc. Commission IN the future, as in
the past, will reflect rather public opin-
Ion than business discretion. The only
safe process, the only American process.
the only effective process. Ia the regula-
ton of transactions by the definite pro-