The New York herald., 1920-01-29
ATTACKS FEDERAL
TRADE COMMISSION
Murray Butler De-
clareS 1t Has Misconstrued
Its Proper Functions.
HAS PROSECUTED BUSINESS
Body, He Says, Has Preferred Violent
Denunciation to Constructive,
Helpful Acts.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa, wednesday.--An
attack on the Federal Trade Commission
was made before the Philadelphia Cham
ber of Commerce today by Dr. Nicholas
Murray Butler, president of Columbia
University and an asprant for the Re-
publican nomination for President.
Discussing the necessity OF clearing
away uncertainties in public policy that
hamper business. DR.. Butler said
I'VE have at the present time Federal
Trade Commission, appointed pursuant TO
the provisions of a statute which might
easily be so administered as TO- do great
good. The Federal Trade Commission
has. however. utterly misconstrlied the
proper functions and has preferred TO
persecute business rather than to protect
and develop 1t. The cheaply won applause
which is sure to follow the violent denun-
citation OF somebody or something for an
alleged wrong has been preferred to the
much more solid and lasting approval of
an intelligent people that would follow
upon constructive acts which would indi-
cate how the business of the country
might be better and more wisely devel-
oped.
1T is little short OF pathetic after some
of the best brains in the nation have or
Eanized and set on foot a great industrial
undertaking which engages the co-opera-
ton of thousands of men and women. re-
duces the cost of production Of some
staple article and begins to1extend Amer
lean trade into new lands, TO find them
summarily brought to book as criminals
by the Attorney General of the United
States or by the United States Attorney
in some judicial district
What Congress Should Do.
The course of wisdom and of progress
would be for the commission to hear the
plans of those who propose to develop an
undertaking of this sort; to point out in
advance what would be considered unfair
business practices and what would not:
to indicate the line where monopoly would
be held to begin and which, therefore,
must not be crossed and then to send the
new undertaking on It's way with the full
knowledge and co-opera ton of the Fed
eral Trade Commission. with which there
after the undertaking should stand In the
closest possible relations"
Such policy by the commission, DR.
Butler said. would simply repeat in the
field Of industry the precise policy which
the government has followed with extraor-
dinary success in the case of national
banks.
Besides doubt as TO what might be done
without prosecution under the Sherman or
clayton act, ne adued, business was con-
fronted with uncertainty as to labor To
remove this he suggested the establish
ment at Washington of commission on
industrial relations to represent the pub
lie alone, which should make findings and
recommendations in labor disputes. The
doors of this commission, he said, should
be open to wage workers. employers, or
to any body of individual citizens, or to
the Attorney General of the United States
Warns Against Political Machines.
Arguing that public opinion would be
sufficient to enforce the commissions rec
Supreme Court could not enforce its de-
crees against a state, but nevertheless
such decisions had been obeyed, and that
the rules of international law except in
time OF war. had wide application.
Dr. Butler expressed a warning note
against the building up of huge political
machines in order to maintain and In
crease the points of contact between gov
ernment and business"
The unchecked development Of such
tendency" he said, would in time COM
pletely alter the American form of gov
ernment and revolutionize American bust
ness. It is perfectly easy by following
such a course as outlined to transfer
democracy into an autocracy OF office
holders and inspectors. Nominally this
autocracy would represent and carry out
the wish of the people, but actually it
would be tyranny OF an office holding
class