The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-15
Five Members, at Salaries of $4,000
Each, Already Are at Work
With Large Staff

~ HE business men or the United
States now have a stern but
sympathetic %parent-a coilec-
Tive father, II might be said-to
rhasten them when they are bad. TO
praise them when they are good and
TO counsel them when they are per-
picked or in trouble.
Mr.. Justice Harlan, who smoked 8
rent cigars twhen not engaged with
other forms Of tobacco. played golf.
taught a Bible class every Sunday
morning. rode In street cars and spoke
TO any n who spoke to him. said
twenty-five years q in a decision
which he delivered in the Supreme
court that the American business man
needed to have a regulator Of the char
Acter here described.
"Full information" he declared.
necessary as a basis of intelligent leg
lslation by Congress upon
the subject of interstate commerce
cannot be obtained. nor can the rules
established for the regulation OF such
commerce he efficiently enforced othcr-
wise than through the fundamentally
of an administrative body representing
the whole country, always watchful OF
the general interest and charged with
the duty % only Of obtaining the re-
quired information but Of compelling.
by all lawful methods, obedience to
such rules"
After more than two decades OF va
grant discussion Congress, eleven
months ago, created the Federal Trade
Commission. II Is composed of Ave
members and Is the stern and SYM
pathetic collective father that is travel
ling from city to city at this time,
~parentally meeting with merchants
and manufacturers and telling them
how to get and to hold the worlds
markets.
The Sherman antitrust .aw was new
when Mr.. Justice Harlan, with IN
erring common sense. pointed u that
rules for the regulation Of business
could not he established. nor their
obedience enforced when established,
unless the national Government were
precisely informed in respect to bust
ness. Blu nothing was done except
20 go after business with a tomahawk
md scalping knife.
Six years later Senator Francis f..
Newlands repeated the Harlan sugges-
ton. Time passed and in 1908 Philan-
der G. Knox. Attorney-General, though
ne had been Andrew Carnegie's per-
sonal counsel and had made $50, 900 a
year as n corporation lawyer, informed
q committee of the Senate that a COM
mission ought to be created TO aid in
carrying out the Sherman law by OBJ
tanning information. by examining
witnesses. including the managers Of
big business and by sending for the
books and documents of the so-called
trusts. The official attitude all the
while vas growing more belligerent.
In the years hat followed bills were
introduced in both houses OF Congress
authorizing independent commissions
to scrutinize and regulate all corpora
tons except banks and railroads en-
gagged in interstate commerce..
Finally on January 20, 1914. Presl-
dent Wilson urged that an interstate
trade commission he established las
an indispensable instrument OF infor-
nation and publicity, as a clearing
house for the facts by which both the
public and the managers of great bush
ness undertakings shall be guided and
az an fundamentally for doing justice
to business when the processes OF the
courts or the natural forces Il correc-
ton outside the courts are inadequate
To adjust the remedy to the wrong in
a way that will meet al, the equities
and circumstances of the case"
So Congress, both of its branches
working and comforting together, en-
acted the law of September 20, 1914.
whereby five commissioners. nc more
than three Of whom can belong to the
same political party, became the regu-
iators-the stern but sympathetic col
l.ctive father as has been said-of the
business men in the United States. The
commissi ners. however, have no con-
tro, over bankers or transportation
companies: their functions being only
operative perhaps with merchants and
manufacturers.
Clubbing. say the business men, has
t~errorized and even crippled the coun-
try's commerce. Manufacturers have
said: Explain the law in plain lam