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If ' the Insurance company remove any action from
the state court to the circuit court of ike United
States. The insurance company removed a case
to the United State circuit court, and the com
missioner cancelled its license. Tiio supreme court
was asked to overrule a former decision holding
a similar statute valid. It declined to do so, but
sustained the ruling in. the previous case broad
ly, upholding the power of the state to require
that no foreign corporation should do business
in the state without a license and to provide for
the cancellation of the license upon such terms
as the state might see Jit to prescribe.
Under the rule laid down in. this case, which
is supported by the previous decisions of the court,
any state may pass a statute providing that no
foreign corporation shall do any domestic busi
ness in the state without first obtaining a license
fr'om certain authorities of the state; and it may
provide that no license shall be issued to any cor
poration vhich is- a trust or creates a monopoly
as above defined, and that any license which Js
issued shall be cancelled if it shall appear that
the corporation is a trust or creates a monopoly,
or has entered into an arrangement or combina
tion for the purpose of creating a monopoly. If
,such statutes were passed by even a majority jf
the states of the union, in a few years every trust
in this country would be a thing of the past; for
no trust con long exist if its right to do business
is", confined to the state of its origin.
The advantages of this solution of the ques
tion are many. No amendment to the constitu
tion o the United States is necessary, and rib
time need be lost in securing power to act Any
one who has been about Washington of late years
knows the great power of the lobby and how hard
it Is to get anything through which a determined
lobby resists. The congress of the United States
has a multitude of business before it, and In the
press of business it is very difficult to get any
specific matter acted upon. The congress is not
as sensible to public opinion as a state legisla
ture. The farther the representatives of the peo
ple are removed from their constituents, the less
weight the opinion of their constituents lrast upon,
them. If the fight Is concentrated at Washington,
then all the forces of the enemy are there; tmt
If the battle Is fought'in forty-five different state
capitals, the forces of the enemy are divided, and
the peoples'1 representatives act' more nearly in
the immediate pres'ence of their constituents.
But the greatest and best reason for it is
that the nearer the government is to the people,
and the more Interest they take In the government
the better will we be off. No people have ever
remained free who trusted to their rulers to take
care of them. The price of liberty is that the
people must be public spirited and must them
selves take care of their own liberties. There can
properly be no such thing as paternalism m a re
publican government The history of all republics
is that when the people cease to take an Interest
in public affairs, relying on their rulers to take
care of them, they soon became despotisms al
though Called republics. History also shows that
the most successful republics have been those in
which public affairs were brought nearest to the
body of the people. It was tills lesson of history
that led the framers of our government to reserve
all power to the people of the states, except such
as was expressly granted to the federal govern
ment. The people of the several states can be
trusted to look after their own local affairs, but
they cannot in the nature of things so well look
after the ndminlstratlon of affairs by the federal
government- The demand now for ah extAision
of the power of the federal government however
well intentloned, Is based in the end upon the idea
that the rulers of the people will look oetter after
the interest of the people than the people them
selves will locally. It may be more difficult for
the people locally to do so, It may be not always
easy to arouse the people, but after all there can
be no question that the framers of our constitu
tion were right when they framed a" central gov
ernment of only limited powers, and reserved
everything but the powers granted to the people
i of the several stales.
As to interstate commerce congress has now
full authority to provide a "remedy and all that
.Is necessary is that an adequate criminal liability
provision be enacted and enforced against the cor-
.porations and the persons Individually who vlo
, lale rthe statute. J. P, HOBSQN.
, oooo
,i INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
- -" The National Confederation for people's rule
has Issued this statement: Two-more states have
x established direct election of Ignited' States sen-
, , ators". Iowa and Washington have Joined the pro-
-r cession, makingfive states tills year, and a total
rof: eighteen, ""The northern states are Oregon,
Washington, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma, wth a unanimous
house in Pennsylvania and a tie vote in the sen
ate and the contest still 'ocl' The southern states
are Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee
and Kentucky.
The same bulletin points out:
New Jersey is the second of the eastern states
to terminate machlrie rule In municipal affairs.
April 10 Governor Stokes signed a bill establish
ing the Initiative and referendum In the cities,
boroughs, villages and towns of New Jersey.
The law is thoroughly up to date, having been
drawn by Hon. Herman B. Walker, of the" New
Jersey people's lobby- Henceforth the final power
in municipal affairs in New Jersey will be in the
voters. Machine rule is a thing of the past
, The bill was first passed by a democratic
house, then by a republican senate and the bill
was signed by a republican governor.
About six weeks ago the Delaware legislature
installed the initiative and referendum hi the city
of Wilmington.
Over In Pennsylvania the lower house has
unanimously passed a bill for the initiative and
referendum In cities and boroughs and the senate
has favorably reported the amended bill, "which,
is almost sure to become a law at once.
Up in Maine the legislature has submitted
a constitutional amendment for the initiative and
referendum; while in Massachusetts a majority in
both branches of the legislature Is pledged to es
tablish the advisory Initiative In state affairs. -.
It is quite evident that the people in the east
ern states are taking hold of the Initiative and
referendum.
xxx
WASHINGTON LETTER
Washington, D. C, May 0. Mr. Bryan's
speech before the Brooklyn Democratic club ln
whlch he took a strong position In behalf of di
rect legislation seems to have awakened soraepuTT
llc astonishment Yet it Is nothing new for him.
He has declared for the initiative and referendum
before, time and ngaiu. '0f course that doctrine
is nearly that of the government by. of and for
the people which Lincoln .preached. The propor
tion that questions Involving popular rights should
be submitted to a popular vote seems so elemen
tary that it is difficult to understand how anyone,
except the servitors of corporations in the legis
lature could oppose it
Probably the one man In the United States
who has made the most exhaustive study of this
subject is Mr. George H. Shlbley, president of tin;
National Federation for People's Itule. Mr. Shlb
Iey's organization Is thoroughly non-partisan. Mr.
Shlbley himself Is consecrating a life of Industry
to the service of the cause In which he believes,
and has to my personal "knowledge for almost a
decade borne the burden of financing the move
ment in which he is interested.
When I spoke to him today of Mr. Bryan's
strenuous statement in Brooklyn the only surprise
he expressed was that the Associated Press had
carried the news. He said, as I know, that Mr.
Bryan had been saying the same tiling for years
past but this time he had compelled the preps
associations to report his utterances. Continuing,
Mr. Shlbley said; "Mr. Bryan's Brooklyn declar
ation for the initiative and referendum is in line
with his past utterances. F6r at least ten years
he has advocated the establishment of the sys
tem. During the past few months he has ad
dressed many legislatures and our newspaper clip
pings show that invariably he has advocated the
establishment of a veto power In the people,
through the referendum, and the power of direct
legislation through the Initiative. The only thing
that Is new Is that the press association should
have sent out any reference to the Initiative and
referendum and that Mr. Bryan should declare
that a belief in the people's capacity to govern
themselves is henceforth to be a vital tenet In
the democratic party. This declaration will at
tract the, great mass of republican voters as well
as the Teally democratic ones, for experfence dem
onstrates that wherever the issue has been dis-cussed-for
a time the people have quickly Hndd up
for themselves and against machine rule. Tlicy
are looking for a means to restore their lost sov
ereignty and the establishment of the initiative
and referendum Is the remedy.' When the people
become again the ruling power in national affairs
they can and will control the trusts. The really
vital issue, therefore, Is who snail possess the sov
ereign power, the voters or the few who are in
office? That was tire issue when Jefferson became
president and It is today's issue. History' is re--peating
itself." -
New York some months ago was making a
fight, to reduce the price of gas and to regulate
its street "railroads." It was my lot tb-bc .asked to
make a study of the organization of the Consoli
dated Gag company and the Metropolitan Trac
tion company. To assist me I had two of tife
- ablest corporation lawyers in the metropolis. What
did we discover? Just tills: That the skill, tho
intelligence, the cunning of EH Ilia Boot,
now secretary of state, had so Involved the
ownership of these corporations that no ono could
unravel the tangle. There were ninety-nine year
leases, sales, holding companies, resnles, stock
pledged, bonds issued, every device known to the
shrewd and unscrupulous corporation lawyer, of
whom Mr. Root te tho highest type, employed to
so Involve the situation that no citizen could ever
be able to understand it
I have now in my possession four or five -books
representing tho endeavor of skilled cor
porntion experts. to explain, not to undo, Mr.
Root's work, and yet the author of cacli said to
me that he had fallen short of coping with this
Machlavelll of stock Jugglery.
Mr. Root has brought a measure of peace to
the business world by enabling the big fellow first
-to crush and then to swallow the smaller one as
docs the boa constrictor his prey. He Is the chief
adviser of a president who talks about the con
spiracy of the rich for his undoing, and who dis
believes in any reduction of armaments lest the
wicked natives of Uganda should arise and
threaten the civilization of Europe. It Is an in
teresting situation, Small wonder that tho peace
conference looked toward Washington with won
der and amaze.
After hearing tho evidence for six weeks a
Jury has declared the Standard Oil company guilty
of rebating on over 1,400 counts. This Jury was
not prejudiced against the company. Out of over
1,900 counts, it declared that the trust was not
guilty in over 400 of them. The Jury was fair, far
fairer with the oil trust than the latter had ever
been with the people, from whom this Jury was
drawn.
The company was Indicted for accepting con
cessions In storage charges, reductions In rates,
and receiving other advantages of railroad dis
crimination. The amounts alleged to have been
given the company aggregated $278,000 In eighteen
months. These rebates cover shipments between
the Company at its thousands of shipping points,
to' which the Standard sends oil. Yet during a
period of eighteen months, when the oil company
must have been on its guard because "of a wide
exposure of, and a widespread protest against its
Iniquities, It Is found guilty of having accepted
at 'not more than five shipping points oyer a guar-
ter of a million of dollars in rebates. Some idea
of the tremendous amounts unlawfully made by
the company at its thousands of shipping points,
during all those years before the present publicity
had been given its methods, can be partially in
ferred. Given a quarter of a million dollars of
advantage over competitors at five points during
eighteen months of strict surveillance, Is it re
markable that the Standard Oil company was able
to crush out all competitors, and build up a colos
sal system, estimated to be worth into the billions?
The oil company Is now battling desperately
to save as much of the spoil of Its robber methods
as It can. It has violated the Jaw. That is clear.
It now will attempt to take advantage of certain
time-honored principles of the law in order to es
cape the penalties that should bo imposed, Bach
offense of the company carries with it a fine of
not less than $1,000 and not more than $20,000.
The court's charge left the Jury a discretion aa
to how many of tho counts it might find the com
pany to be guilty In. The Jury threw out 441
counts as defective and declared the oil trust
guilty on 1,402 counts. If the maximum fines
are Imposed, they will, with the costs, aggregate
nearly $30,000,000.
The oil trust attorneys have made a motion
to limit the number of offenses, for which a fine
can be Imposed, to one. They are taking advan
tage $f,mtthe legal aversion to cumulative penal
ties, and next week they will argue the question
whether the defendant can be fined in more than
one count- Tho ruling upon this point will be
one of the most Important ever decided by a fed
eral court It will determine whether or not the
federal ' laws against railroad discrimination are
enforceable and effective. For if a trust can vio
late a federal law 909 times, and then merely be
subject to the Imposition of one fine for all wrong
doing up to the date of the trial, the law will be
a laughing stock for all our, law-de"fying trusts
and corporations.
If a common criminal is sentenced to prison
for a definite term for each offense, we fail to
see why the Imposition of $30,000,000 In fines
'against a corporation that has made a large por
tion of Its enormous wealth by violating moral and
legal statutes, is unreasonable and not according
to the best principles of Justice.
WILLIS J. ABBOTT.
A,