The Donminion. SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 1911. THE TRUSTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1073, 11 March 1911, Page 4

The Donminion. SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 1911. THE TRUSTS.

Australia and New Zealand, it is being snid, arc mcnaced ,by the American Meat Trust. Reliable information is exceedingly difficult to obtain, but a great many people have made up their minds to ■ be very much alarmed, and the Priiie Minister took advantage of the widespread fear ""of Trust methods to hint at tho readiness of the Government to inflict upon the country something very nearly, if not quite, as bad as anything we can expect from tho American Trust magnates, namely, the nationalisation of the' meat-freezing and meat-export industries. That the country would suffer from invasion by the American Trusts is hardly to be questioned, but there is every reason to hope that the United, States Government will shortly have so dealt with the noxious Trusts that there will be no need to consider the "remedy" of nationalisation. It is no longer possible to say that the Sherman Act, ■which went on the Statute Book on July 2, 1890, is powerless to copo with the operations of tho Trust. Although Mr. Roosevelt did a disservice to the anti-Trust sentiment by laying too much emphasis upon the difference between good" and "bad" corporations, he at ahy rate stirred up public feeling to tho pitch of readiness to receive the more statesmanlike' policy of the able jurist who succeeded him as the head of the Government. Tho Sherman Act has its defects, but it is generally expected that Congress will make such amendments that the strict enforcement of its principle will be easy, and will be welcomed even by those who have honestly believed that the enforcement of the Act in its present form would injure rather than benefit commorce.

The history of the anti-Trust suits during tho past 20 years is related at great length in the New York Post, and it is very instructive and interesting. The Harrison Administration began only seven actions at law under the Act, and scored some minor successes. One suit was dismissed because it was held that "a combination in restraint of trade" was illegal only if it practically controlled, the entire commodity. In the course of tho Cleveland Administration, from 1893 to 1897, nothing was clone. The Attorneys-General, Olney and Harmon, both expressed their distrust of the statute; and the only result of this four years was tho direction of monopolistic ambitions towards the present corporation system, for the sum total of tho decisions of the Courts had been to confino illegality to arrangements between separate organisations. The way of escapc was obvious: the hardening of loose combinations into holding corporations; and during tho three years 1897 to 1000, no fewer than 183 such corporations were established, with a total capital of 4,000,000,000 dollars, the largest being, of course, the Steel Trust. Under the M'Kinley Administration, from 1897 to 1901, the law was practically a dead letter, and it is considered surprising that tho Trust-ridden Eepublicans did not repeat it, as they might easily have done, lteal action began with the Hoosevelt regime, and'many of the forty suits, civil and criminal, that were instituted ended in victory for the Government. The two most important suits, however, were carried over to the present time, and Mr. Taft and his Attorney-General are giving every indication that they will light to a finish. The first of these was tho suit against tho Beef Trtfst, begun in May, 1902. In 1905 tho Supreme Court ordered tho monopoly to ccase, and the packers appeared to reform; but last year the Government decided that they wero misbehaving again, 'and proceedings against them arc now current. The Standard Oil Trust was attacked in November, 1906, and the suit is not ended. The Trust might have reached the,end of its resources in taking advantage of tho technicalities of the general law last November had not the death of the Chief Justicc afforded a further respite. Every mail during the past year has brought further evidence of the activity of the Government and of the extent and diversity of Trust methods. The illegal corporations control innumerable industries, from lumber to cotton, from petroleum to window glass, from transport to clectric supplies. There is even a powerful Bathtub Trust. Mr. Taft is determined to enforce tho Act everywhere and anywhere, although ho feels that in its present shapo it tends in some particulars to prevent the legitimate activities of some business agencies. The AttorneyGeneral, in a recent report, stated Uio Taft policy very clearly. "The decisions of the Supreme Court," lie says, "sustain, beyond controversy, the proposition that every contract, combination in the form of Trust or otherwise, or conspiracy having for its purpose or directly and necessarily affecting the control of prices, suppression of competition, creation of a monopoly, or other obstruction or restraint, of trade or commcrce' among the States," is illegal. Although he is wisely conservative in many of his opinions, Mr. Taft has never been daunted by the plea that * smashing sugmbs for anti-Tvust legislation would be & smashiis;

blow to the stability of American industry. He grasps the decisive principle, which was emphasised by Mr. .Sherman in moving his Bill, that it is as proper to resist tyranny by a magnate or group of magnates as tyranny by a King. This principle Mr. Taft and Mr.. Wickersiiam, his Attorney-General, always emphasise, and there is every prospect that within no great time Iho more harmful Trusts, as we know them, will coaso to exist. Wc-h:ive our antiTrust laws and we can strengthen them. The outlook for the war against the great- monopolistic corporations is as bright as it can he, and it is to be hoped that the strongest possible resistance will be offered to any attempt that may be made in this country under pretence of averting the destruction of competition by tho Meat Trust to introduce a scheme that will equally destroy competition, namely, tho nationalisation of the industry. The cure will, in the end, be worse than the disease, for it will not be merely the destruction of competition in another way, but the destruction, of competition in such a way as will increase the dependents upon the State and enlarge the already great opportunities for patronage and corruption that the small clique we call "the Government" enjoys in .this country,