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The Commoner.
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 17
12
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Tho republican state convention
for South Carolina adopted resolu
tions ondorsing the Roosevelt administration.
New York dispatches say that
formor President Cleveland is so
riouBly ill.
Tho Maine "republicans declarod
for Taft for tho republican nomina
tion, but did not instruct tho dele
gation. Tho republican stato committee
from Maryland electod dolegates to
tho national convention and instruct
ed them for Taft.
faction. Mr. Scott was elected per
manent chairman of tho convention
and made a ringing speech calling for
"an independent republican party in
Alabama, untrammelod by tho influ
ences of lodoral offlco-holders." Can
didates for all state offices to be filled
at tho November election were
named.
Tho republican stato convention
for Colorado mot at Pueblo and in
structed for Secretary Taft.
A petition has boon filed in Ala
bama asking that tho namo of Gov
ernor Johnson of. Minnesota be
placed on tho democratic primary
ticket. Mr. Bryan's namo is also
on tho tickot.
A democratic club organized at
Logansport, Ind., electod Dr. Hattery,
president; Walter Fawcett, secre
tary; George Burkhart, vice presi
dent; Fred Boorgor, troasui'Qr.
The Alabama stato convention of
tho anti-administration forces was
hold at Birmingham April 29. The
Roosevelt and Taft men wore sur
prised whon they found that the na
tional committeeman for Alabama,
Charlos II. Scott, affiliated -with this
Tho Pennsylvania republican state
convention adopted resolutions favor
ing Senator Knox for the presidential
nomination and favoring also a "re
view of the tariff" in such manner, as
to still maintain the policy of protection.
Tho republican state convention
of Mississippi split in two, one sec
tion favoring tho nomination for
president of Senator Foraker and the
other section favoring Roosevelt and
Taft. Two sots of delegates to the
national convention were chosen.
Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, rector H of
Trinity Episcopal church, New York
since 18G2, died of heart failure at
the rectorago. He was 81 years of
ago.
The republican, stato convention
for Arkansas has endorsed Secretary
Taft.
PRESIDENT'S LATEST MESSAGE
(Continued from Page 9) I gross to utilize and exorcise tho great
Miich existed in tho business world powers conferred upon it as regards
twenty years ago while tho many
abuses that still remain emphasize
the need of further and more thor
oughgoing legislation. : . .
"Similarly tho bureau of corpora
tions has amply justifiodita croatlon.
In other words, it is clear that the
principles employ od to remedy tho
great evils in tho business world
liavo worked well, and thoy can now
bo employed to correct tho evils that
furthor commercial growth has
brought moro prominontly to tho sur
facp. Tho powers and scope of tho
interstate commerce commission, and
of any similar body, such as the
bureau of corporations, which has to
deal with tho matter in hand, should
be greatly enlarged so as to meet tho
requirements of the present day
States Can Not Control
. "The decisions of the Biiprome court
in the Minnesota and North Carolina
cases illustrate how imposslblo is a
dual control of national commerce.
The state can not control it. All
they can do is to control state com
merce, and this now forms but a
small fraction of tho commerce car
ried by tho railroads through each
Btate. Actual experience has shown
that tho effort at stato control is
euro to be nullified in one way or
another sooner or later. Tho nation
alone can act with effectiveness and
wisdom; it should have tho control
of both of tho business and of the
agent by which the business is done,
for any attempt to separate this con
trol must result in grotesque absur
dity. ,
"This means that we must rely
upon; national legislation to prevent
tho commercial abuses that now exist
and the pthors that assure to arise
unless some ofliciont government
body has adequate power of control
over them.
"At present the failure of con-
interstate commerce leaves this com
merce to be regulated, not by the
state nor yet by congress, but by the
occasional and necessarily inadequate
and one-sided action of the federal
judiciary. However upright and
able a court is, it can not act con
structively; it can only act negative
ly or destructively, as an agency of
government, and this means that the
courts are and must always be un
able to deal effectively with a prob
lem like the present, which requires
constructive action. A court can de
cide what is faulty but it has no
power to make better what it thus
finds to be faulty.
Must Give Power
"There should be an efficient exec
utive uouy created with power
enough to correct abuses and scope
enough to work out the complex
problems that this great country has
developed. It is not sufficient objec
tion to say that such a body may be
guilty of unwisdom or of abuses.
uy Buvurnmentai nouy, wnotner a
court or a commission, whether exec
utive, legislative or judicial, if given
power enough to enable it to do
effective work for good, must also
inevitably receive enough power to
mako it possibly effective for evil.
"Therefore, it is clear that (unless
a national incorporation law can be
forthwith enactod) some body or
bodies in tho executive service should
bo given power to pass upon any
combination or agreement in rela
tion to interstate commerce, and
every such combination or agreement
not thus approved should be treated
as in violation of law and prosecuted
Accordingly. The issuance of the se
curities of any combination doing In
terstate business should be under the
supervision of the national govern
ment. "A strong effort has been made to
have labor organizations completely
exempted from any of tho operations
of this law, whether or not their
acts are in restraint of trade. Such
exception would in all probability
mako tho bill unconstitutional and
the legislature has no more right to
pass a bill without regard to whether
it is constitutional than the courts
havo lightly to declare unconstitu
tional a law which the legislature has
solemnly enacted. Tho responsibil
ity is as great on tho one side as on
the other, and an abuse of power by
tho legislature in one direction is
equally to be condemned with an
abuse of power by the courts in the
other direction.
"It is not possible wholly to ex
cept labor organizations from the
workings of this law, and they who
insist upon totally excepting them
are merely providing that their
status shall be kept wholly un
changed, and that they shall con
tinue to be exposed to the action
which they now dread. Obviously,
an organization not formed for profit
should not be required to furnish
statistics in any way as complete as
those furnished by organizations for
profit. Moreover, so far as labor is
encaKed in production only, its
claims to be exempted from the anti
trust law are sound. This would
substantially cover the right of la
borers to combine, to strike peace-
I ably, and to enter Into trade agree
ments with the employers.
No Sanction of Boycott
"But when labor undertakes in a
wrongful manner to prevent the dis
tribution and sale of the products
of labor, as by certain forms of the
boycott, it has left the field of pro
duction, and its action may plainly
be in restraint of Interstate trade,
and must necessarily be subject to
inquiry, exactly as in tho case of
any other combination for the same
purpose, so as to determine whether
such action is contrary to sound pub
lic policy. The heartiest encourage
ment should be given to the wage
workers to form labor unions and to
enter into agreements with their em
ployers; and their right to strike,
so long as they act peaceably, must
be preserved. But we should sanc
tion neither a boycott nor a black
list, which would be illegal at com
mon law.
"The measures I advocate are in
tho interest both of decent corpora
tions and of law-abiding labor
unions. They are, moreover, pre
eminently in the intorest of the-pub-lic
for, in my judgment, the Amer
ican people have definitely made up
their minds that the days of the
reign of the great law-defying and
law-evading corporations are over,
and that from this time on the
mighty organizations of capital neces
sary for the transaction of business
under modern conditions, while en
couraged so long as they act honest
ly and in the interest of the general
public, are to be subjected to careful
supervision and regulation of a kind
so effective as to insure their acting
in the interest of the people as a
whole.
In Grip of Combine
Allegations are often made to
tho effect that there is no real need
for these laws looking to the more
euecuve control of the great cor
porations, upon the ground that they
will do their wor.k well without such
control. I call your attention to the
accompanying copy of a report just
submitted by Nathan Matthews,
chairman of the finance commission,
to tho mayor and city council of
Boston, relating to certain evil prac
tices of various corporations which
have been bidders for furnishing to
tlie city iron and steel.
"This report shows that there
have been extensive combinations
formed among tho various corpora
tions which have business with the
city of Boston, including, for in
stance, a carefully planned combina
tion embracing practically ,aU the
firms and corporations engaged in
structural steel work in New Eng
land. This combination included
substantially all the local concerns
and many of the largest corporations
in the United States engaged in man
ufacturing or furnishing structural
steel for use in any part of New
England; it affected the states, tho
cities and towns, the railroads and
street railways, and generally all
persons having occasion to use iron
or steel for any purpose in that sec
tion of the country. As regards the
city of Boston, the combination re
sulted in parceling out the work by
collusive bids, plainly dishonest, and
supported by false affirmations.
Says Bids nro Dishonest
"In its conclusion the commission
recommend as follows:
" 'Comment on the moral meaning
of these methods and transactions
would seem superfluous, but as they
were defended at the public hearings
of the commission and asserted to
be common and entirely proper inci
dents of business life, and as these
practices have been freely resorted
to by some of the largest industrial
corporations that the world has ever
known, the commission deems it
proper to record its own opinion.
" '-The commission dislikes to be
lieve that these practices are, as al
leged, established by the general
custom of the business community,
and this defense itself, if unchal
lenged, amounts to a grave accusa
tion against the honesty of present
business methods.
" 'To answer an invitation for pub
(Contlnued on Page 14)
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