Valdez daily prospector., 1916-03-07
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1916
AN UNFINISHED ARTICLE.

The trial of the New Haven direc
 tors for conspiracy to restrain trade
 is ended. May inquire whether ol
 not a conviction was secured? If not
 are we to take for granted that there
 was no violation of law? Or that
 the government with all it's resources
 was unable in this particular case ;tc secure a, conviction? If either be true then again I claim these laws to restrain business are intellectual as a political club and to harrass small fusiness in it's efforts to defend it. self against its more powerful com petitors and political pirates.
 Judging by the length of the trial and the jury's difficulty in reaching their verdict, one feels that small chance less powerful body of di- rectcrs would have had to escape a conviction. take the stand that if Is reasonably impossible to secure a conviction against MT. Rockefeller, then John Jones ought not to be prosecuted for doing the same thing even though in his case a conviction might be secured. This, of course. refers to those acts in which there is so much difference of opinion as to whether such acts constitute crime or whether they were acts necessary in the development of business, as- suming these so-called antitrust laws to be ineffective against those for whom they were intended, and Chat other things will interest the public, in future, and that no action will be taken for number of years at least, against those who disregard these laws, what do they propose to do with these statutes?
 Do they propose to let them remain in force, forgotten by all except the more conscientious business men, anxious to obey all good laws, yet 1retting because they feel handicap ped by trying to comply with busi- ness rules which their more power ful competitors may totally ignore and escape prosecution? Or will they suspend them indefinitely as they did with certain navigation laws in order that our stifled and stunted merchant marine might have an equal chance with the more pow erful fleets of the world? Surely American business institutions of the future are entitled to the same con- sideration. Or is the necessity and anducement for small business indeed decreasing in proportion to the Gov ernment's tendency to reach out into fields which, rightly or wrongly, have In the past been considered as be- longing to individual enterprise? If So--and I am --.clined toward that opinion--then the time must soop come when the operations of "big business" and the Government must eliminate all except sufficient to form a times q balance between them, as Is the case in po...Acs today-even that is better than one big rotten monopoly.
 It appears lo, if Government regulation is: to be encouraged and effective the regulating body must first determine and be competent to determine, whether proposition ought to be incorporated and if SO the amount of capital stock allow able for each particular. class of en- terprise. This method used with judgment together with a constant though slight pressure on corpora <ions already in existence which are undoubtedly over capitalized would | think, injure nobody very seriously.
 Watered stock so-called, is proba- bly the root of all evil in corpora