The Commoner.
I, lOOd.
N FORCE THE CRIMINAL LAW
fciuel Untermeyer, tho well-known New
liwyer who exposed the shipbuilding trust,
ren to tne inow xurjt worm an interview
anti-trust law This interview should
ride publicity. Mr. Untermoyer declares
lere are many trusts whose managers could
tcessfully prosecuted under tho criminal
?of the Sherman anti-truBt law. He dc-
tthat a single conviction in the criminal
twould have more beneficent effect than a
of civil litigation.
lile Mr. Untermeyer does not mention these
jpecifically, the World says that it is plain
le steel trust and the International Mor-
h Marine are open to prosecution under tho
il clause, according to tho decision de-
in tho merger case.
. Untermeyer says: "It is in its criminal
that the law can be made most effective.
le unexplained reason the government has
invoked the criminal provisions of the
F; Untermeyer's statements with respect to
iforcement of the criminal law are so in-
.ng that they are reproduced in full. He
?ho same proof that has resulted In the
it findings that the merger constituted an
tonable restraint of trade would have sus-
a criminal conviction. The terror of tho
lal law is tho only effective restraining in-
against the continuance and repetition of
sfiance of this law under the innumerable
pes to which resort may be had. If the do-
snt of justice is sincere in its desire to en-
le law in good faith it ban accomplish more
single criminal prosecution- in tho way of
g existing violations and preventing new
than by devoting a lifetime to civil action.
?he civil remedies under it can never be
effective in practice. Wo had a fair illustra
te that in the case of the sugar trust, in
the attorney general of this state, after
of litigation, obtained an adjudication dis-
fg the trust as a conspiracy. Judgment was
iu and a receiver appointed. What was tho
The receiver under the direction of tho
'and at the request o substantially all the
lolders transferred the property and busl-
bulk to the American Sugar Refining com-
Tq had then the spectacle of a great industry
iad been judicially declared a criminal con
spiracy handed over in its entirety on tho order of
tho court to a corporation formed for tho pur
pose. Tho now corporation thus derived from
judicial authority its tltlo and its right to con
tinue perpetually to exercise tho monopoly on ac
count of which its predecessor had been con
demned! What greater travesty upon tho ad
ministration of justice could possibly bo con
ceived! - "A similar result under othor forms is almost
certain to follow the decision in tho Northern Se
curities case. What particular form tho new mo
nopoly will assume has not yet been determined.
It requires little stretch of tho imagination for
lawyers to conceive methods that may bo em
ployed for tho purposo, and so when the public
attontion is no longer riveted lipon this company
wo shall probably witness the act that has been
here condemned re-enacted in a slightly different
.form, and another lesson will have been taught
to the people in the methods of circumventing tho
law! "
"For theso reasons I repeat that if this law
has any value for tho people it is in its criminal
features. If the government wishes In good faith
to enforce the law it will invoke its penal provi
sions. A single conviction, accompanied by im
prisonment, will do more to teach respect for the
law than all tho decisions of all the courts for all
time to come based only on tho civil remedies that
may bo invoked.
"It is . iiicredible that no effort should have
been made during all these years of flagrant vio
lation to enforce tho criminal provisions If thoro
were an honest disposition to enforce the law
during" the fourteen years it has been in exist
once." '
Whatwill bo the legal effect of the decision
in the Northern Securities case upon the ability
of the government to enforce the law against other
corporations?
,"S'o far as concerns railroad corporations,
those, similarly situated will of course come with
in the rules there laid down. The anthracite coal
carrying roads, such as the Reading road, with
their ownership of coal mines, can undoubtedly be
reached.
"The decision will not affect industrial corporations-one
way or the other unless they aio
engaged in interstate commerce. Under tho ruio'
laid down by the supremo court in tho caso of tbo
United States vs. Knight (the sugar trust case)
very few of the industrial corporations are sub
ject to tho provisions of tho Sherman act The
mere ownership of factories In different states
and tho distribution of tho product from those fac
tories throughout tho country or any forolgn coun
tries was held In that caso not to constitute In
terstate commerce, although tho ownership by a
single corporation of such factories constituted
a monopoly of tho industry.
"Whatever difference of opinion may exist as
to the logic or wisdom of that rulo it remains tho
law applicable to these industrial corporations
until tho court roverscs tho 'rule. Thoro aro,
however, some industrial companies that como
within thd definition of oven that rule, and among
them are a few of the largest industrial corpora
tions yet organized. They aro brought within
it by tho ownership of subsidiary companies en
gaged in transportation by land and water, somo.
of them organized mainly for transportation pur
poses either between tho states or with foroigu
countries.
"The bulk of tho Industrial combinations must,
however, continue to be dealt with, If at all, by
the laws of the several states.
"Tho Northern Securities decision has no
application to them or to tho methods of their
organization, except that 'holding' companies can
no longer claim that the ownership or control of
subsidiary companies renders them non-amenable
to the federaf statute In cases in which they
are actually engaged in interstate commerce.
Where they are 30 engaged, and tho combination
is in effect an unreasonable restraint upon com
petition, they cannot escape merely by reason of
the fact that their Holding Is indirect instead of
a direct ownership.
"I do not subscribe to the modern theory of '
economics put forth by tho Ingenious promoters
of theso gigantic monopolies, and by such: oml
nent champions as James C. Carter and John E.
Parsons, that competition, which was onco con
sidered the life of trade, Is a curse and monopoly
a blessing. Believing, as I do, that it is not' in
tho interest of tho country to have tho railroad
systems of the country, p any great Industry,
controlled by a few men or cliques of men, and
that competition is necessary to the healthful de
velopment of a country and its people, I am still
hopeful that the, criminal provisions of tho federal
law and of the stato laws will be Invoked, against
a few of the more vicious and flagrant of the mo
nopolies with which tho country Is now burdened."
time surrendering itself to tho domination
)so who meet "with sneers, -jeers and open
fonpt" tho suggestion that the laws be en-
Ct cannot be possible that tho World means
the democratic party should entirely abandon
Position upon the trust question, nominat-
tor president the World's favorite candidate,
Per Cleveland, or some one in harmony with
views, and by this course "obtaining support
iinoney for campaign purposes from the trust
mtes.
Jurely these magnates would not be hostile
Candidates who. while holding public office,
E,!"r.r4-'U nnrtn...-. 4 .1 -. nnn.n.n(ll' nil
lis that tho law which the trust magnates
violating be enforced.
Made to Get In On.t
General H. H. Thomas, who recently retired
the position of the United S'tates appraiser
the port of Chicago, has written an open letter
lecretary of. the Treasury Shaw. In this letter
jral Thomas says:
Sj. "Tho republican party prides Itself on its
muton to the .civil service law and you have
rorn to enforce that as well as other laws.
it us see tho performance. In April last there
jcurred a vacancy in tho tobacco examiner's
pee, which carried a salary of $1,8Q0. There
sing no eligible? to select from, you ap-
plnted Mr. Lahann for a thirty-day term at
(.0 per day. You reappointed him each month
itil September 2. when a competitive exam-
iatlon was held, in which he participated and
Med to pass. A half-dozen did pass and some ,
them well up in the nineties, and the law
ado it one, of your duties to appoint one
the three highest, but you set aside the
iw and have appointed Lahann five times .
ice. I am saying nothing against him. You
tve paid him .?3,000 for ten months, 20 per
it more than the appraiser receives, twice
' as much as the tobacco examiner ever had,
and $1,160 per annum more than Mr, Wallace,
my chief examiner a man competent to fill
any' place in the customs service. If you can
do this ten times, what is to hinder, you from
. doing it a hundred times, in utter .contempt
of the law? What do you suppose the presi-
dent would have done when he was a stren
uous civil service commissioner if ho had
- caught a wicked democrat- in that kind of a
predicament?"
General Thomas makes a very interesting
statement, and yet it is strange that a man who
has been so long identified with the republican
party as General Thomas has been, and wlio has
had excellent opportunities for learning the
Roosevelt methods, would expect any demonstra
tion of sincerity on the part of the Roosevelt ad
ministration with respect to the civil service law,
or indeed, with respect to many other- far-famed
policies, which, like the platform on the railway
coach and the platform of the republican party
are made to get in on and not made to stand on.
' Reducing the Dinner PaiL
One hundred and ninety thousand miners in
tho soft coal district have voted to accept a wage
reduction. While they have no legal cause of ac
tion against the republican leaders they can justly
complain at this reduction in the size of the dinner
pail In the face of present business conditions
they were probably wise to accept a reduction
rather than strike, but can they be deceived again
by the prosperity argument? W ith. shrinking
stocks, decreasing dividends and falling wages the
republican campaign ammunition is likely to run
. short.
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