Evening star., 1936-02-04

lASt nlRIlL.
them have more employees than many
States have inhabitants. Some have
assets and incomes greater than the
assets and incomes of many States
and most cities. Many Of them claim
and exercise rights and powers in ma
tional and international affairs that
would be wholly unconstitutional II
attempted to be exerted by State.
The problem growing out of the ex-
pansion of corporate power is in no
sense new. 1t has been before Con-
gress in one form or another for so
years. In 1890 the Sherman antitrust
law was passed declaring every con-
tract combination or conspiracy in
restraint of trade to bt illegal and
providing that every perscn who should
monopolize or attempt to monopolize
any part of trade or commerce among
the several States to be guilty of
misdemeanor.
Thus. As years ago, the Nation
through its accredited legislative
agency declared its opposition to the
forces which have brought about the
condition which I described at the
beginning of this discussion. namely.
that 100000 families, or 81 per cent
of all the families in the United States,
were in 1929 compelled to live upon an
income of less than 81 900 a year and
that less than one-half of per cent
of all the corporations owned more
than SO per cent of all corporate as
sets. The antitrust law is still upon
the statute books, but the evil 1t was
intended to remove is worse than it
ever was in the history of our country.
Tendency to Cut Production.
Why are the American people in
stinctively opposed to monopoly? Be-
cause they know that while it may
be good, or rather profitable for the
monopolists, it is bad for the public;
because they know that the tendency
of big corporations Is 70 cut down pro-
duction, hold prices rp, reduce wages
and create unemployment. Or, to
state 1t more accurately, the full bene-
fits of improving technology have not
been passed on to the consumer, the
employe and the small investor. but an
undue proportion has been diverted by
monopolistic management to its own
purposes. Though it is possible to cite
special cases to the contrary, the state
ment is nevertheless true. as evidenced
by the fact that unemployment in
creased steadily and real wages stead
lily declined in the period before the
crash. That is why the rich have
been getting richer and the poor
poorer.
Concentration of corporate wealth
proceeding by merger and overcapi-
talization, has produced the contrast
ing poverty and wealth which every
economist acknowledges. Great as Is
the national debt, costly as all govern
ments. municipal, State and national,
may be, that debt is but drop in the
bucket when measured against the
tribute that has been wrung from the
people of America under the present
corporate system.
Now what is the reason for that
state of things? The reason is that
while we have declared with almost
absolute unanimity against monopolis-
tic practices in commerce and indus
try, we have permitted monopoly to
grow apace by permitting State cor
porations to dominate our national
economy. When the Constitution WAS
drafted, it received the support of all
of the business interests Of the original
colonies because they all recognized
the need of national rule for national
commerce. They wan.ed National
Government because they wanted to
abolish State lines so far as commerce
and trade are concerned. No man can
read the history of The Constitutional
Convention, the history of the cam
paign for ratification without realiz-
ing that this was the fact.
Congress was given the power. in
the language of the third clause Of the
eighth section of Article I, Ito regu-
late commerce with foreign nations
and among the several States. and
with the Indian tribes" Then in the
eighteenth clause of the same section
it was given the power Ito make all
laws which shall be necessary and
proper for carrying into execution"
all the powers vested in the Govern
ment of the United States.
Commerce NATIONWIDE
The commerce upon which you and
I depend for our very existence is
national in its scope. My voice to-
night rides on the ether across the
continent as quickly as 1t crosses the
room in which speak. An airplane
from the City of Washington would
carry me to the Pacific Coast almost
between sunset and sunrise. Every
means of transportation and COM
munication which science and in
genuity have developed have made
this Nation what its founders realized
it would eventually be. single econ
onic unit. The 618 corporations
which own So per cent of all corpo-
rate assets are wholly national If not
international in their scope and yet
they operate without charters from
the people of the United States.
The millions whose economic
destiny is in the hands of these cor
porations whether they be investors,
employees or the public generally, have
nothing in the world to say about the
manner and form In which they oper-
ate. These corporations obtain their
powers, not from the Nation. but from
some individual State, powers which
permit their managers to disregard
the most fundamental rules Of finan-
cial integrity and public responsibility
in the management of other peoples
money. The bill which propose
would undertake not to establish
bureaucratic regulatios,, but to estab-