The Washington herald., 1920-03-02
CONTINUED TRoM PAGE oNE.

tenn Of control of corporations by
Federal license, but Congress never
has acted upon the suggestion.
There Is said to be q growing senti-
ment in many quarters for some
such plan of regulation oversth big
corporations which control the eco
nomic and Industrial necessities of
the nation. 1t Is held to have It's
foundation on the principle that
bigness IL no. of itself crime, and
that regulation, not destruction, of
great trade combinations affords the
public.
There Is a growing sentiment
which regards the antitrust laws
as ineffective for accomplishment of
the purposes their authors had in
writing them, and a considerable eie-
ment in Official Washington agrees
that the American public has lost
faith in them as effective weapons
to perform the wonders Of economic
relief which formerly were ascribed
to them. One of the comments
heard most frequently in the street
when Palmer announced the volun-
tary dissolution of the packers, was:
well, I guess the price of meat will
go mp now like the price Of gasoline
did after the Standard Oil was dis
solved"
Packers Continue Fight.
Although the packers have not
relented in their fight against the
Federal licensing proposed in the
Kenyon-Kendrick bills pending in
Congress, some other important in
dustries of great organized strength
are represented as looking with
favor upon the suggestion. They
are said to hold this view because
they believe that the time. is not
remote when some sort of Federal
influences will be essential for
maintenance of a proper relation be-
tween the big industries and their
employees. With the government
regulating the corporations through
its license control, some employers
are said to believe the government
would be powerful buffer between
the employer and unreasonable de-
mands by the workers.
Not the least important of recent
events leading away from the anti
trust prosecutions as the more ef-
fective method of Federal influence
in the affairs of big business. has
been the virtual repeal of the Clay
ton antipooling act by the Cum
mins-E -Esch railroad law which the
President approved on Saturday.
The whole theory of the Clayton
act to prevent the pooling of trans
portation facilities and the consoli-
dation of competing carriers has
been set aside in the new railroad
bill through the authority granted
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion to permit consolidation of car
riers and to order, in the interest
of the public, joint use of terminals
and other facilities. Competition is
to be preserved as to service, not
in the old way of rate cutting out
of which grew the rebate practices
later condemned by Federal statute.
Railways Cleared.
This provision of law in the Cum
mins-Esch bill was regarded as
likely to affect the government s
antitrust suit against the Southern
Pacific Company and the Central
Pacific Company. now pending in
the Supreme Court. The absorp-
tion of competing lines, denounced
so vigorously prior to Federal con-
troll of railroads, has been accepted
by Congress as a proper principle for
the future, because the first act or
the government in taking over the
roads in January. 1918, was to set
aside the Clayton act and to do
what it had prohibited the carriers
themselves from doing-establish-
ing unified operation.
The agreed decree of dissolution
entered into by the packers and At
torney General Palmer is regarded
as amounting to a sort of Federal
regulation or supervision over the
meat producing industry under a
court order. During the war the
government exercised a regulatory
policy with respect to the flour
mills of the country, working un-
der authority of the licensing
clauses of the food control act and
through the medium of the United
States Grain Corporation. a crea-
ture of the Food Administration.
The majority opinion of the Su-
preme Court drew attention to the
Webb act, which exempts from pro-
duction under the Sherman and
Clayton acts, combinations organ
lied to engage in export trade. In
response to it's own question, What
of the foreign trade that has been
developed and eXists?" the court
stated that the government with
some inconsistency" would not have
the Steel Corporation dissolved in
so far as its activities in foreign
trade were concerned.