Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-02-16

that purchase? Is it any concern of
ours that any other Standard Oil COM
pany with which, by a judicial de-
cree, we are forbidden to have any
relationship, charges another diff
ferent price? Why, if we tried to
agree with other subsidiaries as to
prices we would be put in jail for VIC
lating the decree which made us in
dependent" 1t was asserted at the
beginning of this article that the
Standard Oil dissolution decree was
the greatest legal blunder of the age.
The proof of the pudding is in the eat
ing. The net result Of the dissolu-
ton decree is to give the owners of
the Standard Oil company practically
of the advantages of combination with
few Of its attending disadvantages.
Witness the remarkable position in
which that vast company has been
placed.
There we're two schools Of thought
in this country running in opposite
directions, one advocating trust bust
ing and the other favoring the regula-
ton of combinations of capital. We
have upon our statute books at this
time two great laws which are the pro-
ducts of these two schools of thought:
The Sherman antitrust law, providing
for trus+ busting, and the Clayton law
providing for trust regulation. There
are some ways in which these two
laws complement each other but on
the whole they are running in oppO-
ia Sc orsIyo Il do
cree places the vast Standard Oil
company where under existing law it
meets the ideas Of neither school of
thought and where it's organization
is not susceptible of being dissolved
or controlled as a whole. If you favor
trust busting you know only too well
that the Standard Oil company was
not busted, while if you are in favor
of regulating trusts you know equally
we'll that the Standard Oil company as
a whole is not subject to regulation
under the provisions of the Clayton
law. The remarkable dissolution de-
cree by its laundering provisions has
given to the Standard Oil company in
dealing with Independents an artificial
advantage and government sanction,
which the government would be only
too glad no doubt to destroy were it
not faced by the provisions OF this re-
markable decree.
What are we going to do about it?
The Standard Oil company today is
confident of its position. Five years
ago it feared the public and public
hot iC
years ago it would not have dared the
Independents to enter into a contest
like the present bloody battle. Now
it knows that the public is interested
in the war and in politics and in men.
1t has renewed vigOr and courage and
it is now saying to the people, to the
government, to the press and to the
consumers and to the Independent
oil interests, "Have you the courage
to start anything?"
1t is exceedingly doubtful whether
under existing law the blunder made
by the government can be retrieved
In view Of the existence of the decree,
it is quite doubtful whether under the
existing statutes there is any adequate
relief. But the provisions Of the de-
cree do not make further cOngressiOn-
al action impossible. Congress owes
it to the country and to the indepen-
dent oil interests to do one Of two
things. Either congress should com
pei the effectual dissolution Of this
gigantic organization known as the
Standard Oil company, or it should
frankly recognize it's existence and re-
gulate it as whole
Either the Standards attorneys were
right when they declared the consti-
tuent companies were not naturally
competing or they were wrong. If
they were right, the government ought
to have welcomed and out now to well
come a consolidation of these compan-
les. If they were wrong, the coher-
ence of those companies ought to be
broken up or if the thought FREEDOM
mates that combinations Of capital
merely be regulated, then the country
certainly ought to regulate this great
national and international concern.
What can congress do?
Does anyone question the right of
congress to pass a law substantially
providing that where the common
ownership of the stock naturally COM
peting corporations produces actual or
potential monopoly that such stock
ownership is illegal and provide that
court Of equity may compel dis
solution similar to that which took
place in the Union Pacific case? Or,
if regulation is thought advisable is it
not we'll within the power of congress
to provide for the regulation of such
a group of corporations as though they
were a legal unit?
The federal trade commission was
directed by a senate resolution passed
at the instance of Senator Gore more
than a year ago to investigate the
practical workings of the famous
Standard Oil decree. However, no Op-
preparation was made and therefore
no adequate investigation has been
made. There can be no better way in
which congress can spend money than