Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1903 — PRESIDENT ON TRUSTS. [ARTICLE]

PRESIDENT ON TRUSTS.

Statement by Roosevelt Points Out Some Evils and Remedies. President Roosevelt has mado known the attitude of his administration regarding trusts and combinations. A statement which follows closely the recommendations made by Attorney General Knox to the judiciary committees of the Senate aud the House was given out at the White House and is as follows: The people do not desire the business of the country to be interfered with beyond the regulation necessary to control combinations where .they act Improperly and to correct any tendency toward monopoly. In this country, where money Is cheap and abundant and within the reach of keen and capable men, monopoly will be Impossible if competition Is kept free. Small enterprises have certain advantages over large combinations and will live and thrive if assured of nn open and fair field. Rebates and discriminatory rates constitute one of the chief restrictions on competition. They unjustly swell the earnings of favored concerns and, supporting a vast volume of capital stock which represents nothing but unfair advantage over rivals, contribute largely to the upbuilding of monopoly. The administration recommends Immediate legislation: That all discriminatory practices affecting Interstate trade be made offenses to be enjoined and punished. Such legislation to be directed alike against those who give and those who receive Illegal advantages, and to cover discrimination in prices as against competitors In particular localities resorted to for the purpose of destroying competition. In order to reach producers guilty of these offenses who are as producers merely beyond national control a penalty should be Imposed upon the interstate aud foreign transportation of good* produced by them, and federal courts should be given power to restrain such transportation at the government's suit. Such legislation Is necessary because the existing Interstate commerce law does not give an effective remedy in this class of cases against either shipper or carrier. The casus omissus in the Interstate commerce act should now be supplied by imposing a penalty upon carrier and beneficiary alike and by giving to the courts the right to restrala all such Infraction* of the law. The prohibition against carrier* should be limited to those subject to th* act to regulate commerce. Only carriers operating a line of railroad or a rail and water line as one line are required to publish their rates and adhere to them. It Is Impracticable to control lines operating wholly by water. Rates of water transportation are necessarily open to the freest competition, are Invariably low by comparison and thus naturally furnish the standard of reasonableness without express regulation. It should be made unlawful to transport traffic by carriers subject to the Interstate commerce act at a less rate than the published rate and all who participate in violating the law should be punished. Provision should also be made to reach corporations and combinations which produce wholly within a State, but who** product* enter interstate commerce. Thl* provision should relate, first, to concerns which fatten on rebate*, second to concerns which sell commodities below the general price In particular localities or in any other way In particular localities seek to destroy competition.