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Show processes of selfcorrection and dis-' turb its legitimate course as little as possible, we ought to see to it, and the judgment of practical and sagacious sagac-ious men of affairs everywhere would applaud us if we did see to it. that penalties and punishments should fall, nut on business itself, to its confusion con-fusion and interruption, but on the individuals who use the instrumentalities instrumental-ities of business to do things which public policy and sound business practice condemn. Every act of business busi-ness is done at the command or on the initiative of some ascertainable person or group of persons. These chruld bo ! .Id i ,u.u:y respon sible and tiie punishment should fall on them, not on the business organi zation t.f which they made illegal use. It should be one of the main objects of our legislation to divest such persons per-sons of their corporate cloak and deal with them as with those who do not represent their corporations, but merely by deliberate intention break the law. The business men the country coun-try through wouid, I am sure, applaud ap-plaud us if we were to take effectual steps to see that the officers and directors di-rectors of great Dtisincss bodies werb prevented from bringing them and the business of the country into disrepute dis-repute and danger. To Prohibit Holding Companies. "Other questions remain which will need very thoughtful and practical treatment. Enterprises, in these modern days-of great individual fortunes, for-tunes, are oftentimes interlocked not by being under the control of the same directors, but by the fact that the greater part of their corporate stock is pvvned by a single person or group of persons who are in some way intimately related in interest. We are agreed, I take it, that holding hold-ing companies should be prohibited, but what of controlling private ownership own-ership of individuals or actually cooperative co-operative groups of individuals? Shall the private owners of dapital stock be suffered to be themselves in effect holding company? We don't wish, I suppose, to forbid the purchase pur-chase of stocks by the holding companies? com-panies? We don't wish, I suppose, to forbid the purchase of stocks by any person who pleases to buy them in such quantities as he can afford, or in any way arbitrarily to limit the sale of stocks to bona fide purchasers. purchas-ers. Shall we require the owners of stock, when their voting power in i severe companies which ought to be independent of one another would constitute actual control, to make election in which of them they will exercise their right to vote? This question I venture for your consideration. consid-eration. Addition to Constitution. "There is another matter imperative impera-tive considerations of justice and fair play suggest thoughtful remedial action. ac-tion. Not only uo many of the combinations com-binations expected or sought to be perfected in tne industrial world work an injustice on the public in general; they also directly and seriously seri-ously injure the individuals who are put out of business in one unfair way or another by the many dislodging and exterminating forces of combination. combin-ation. I hope that we shall agree in giving private individuals who claim to have been injured by these processes pro-cesses the right to found their suits for redress on the facts and judgments judg-ments proved and entered in suits by the government where the government govern-ment has on its own initiative sued the combinations complained of and won its suit and that the statute of limitations shall be suffered to run against such litigants only on the date of the conclusion of the government's gov-ernment's action. It is not fair that the private litigant snould be obliged oblig-ed to set up and establish again the facts which the government has proved. He cannot afford, he has not the power to make use of such processes of inquiry as the government govern-ment has command of. Thus shall individual justice be done, while the processes of business are rectified and squared with the general conscience? con-science? "f have laid the case before you, no doubt as it lies in your mind, as it lies in the thought of the country. Wnat must every candid man say of the suggestions I have laid before you, of the plain obligations of which I have reminded you? That these are new things for which the country coun-try is not prepared? No, but they are old things, low familiar, and must, of course, te undertaken if we are to square our laws with the thought and desire of the country. Until these things are done, conscientious con-scientious business men the country over will be- unsatisfied. They are in these tlvngs our mentors and colleagues. col-leagues. Wi are now about to write the additional articles of our constitution consti-tution of peace, the peace that is honor and freedom and prosperity." WILSON OUTLINES HIS TR05I POLICY SAYS THE GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS MEN ARE READY TO MEET EACH OTHER HALF WAY. Declares Punishment Should Fall cn Individuals Responsible for Unlawful Un-lawful Business Pr2c;ices, as Well as Upon Corporations. Washington. President Wilson personally laid before a joint session of congress on Tuesday, January 20, the fundamental principles of the Democratic administration program for dealing with trusts and "big business." busi-ness." The president presented the case, lie said, "as it lies in the thought of the country," reiterating that "private monoply is indefensible and intolerable,'' and declaring that conscientious business men through-cut through-cut the nation would not be satisfied until practices now deprecated by public opinion as restraints of trade and commerce were corrected. The president spoke as follows: "Gentlemen of the. Congress: In my report 'On the State of the Union,' which I had the privilege of reading to you on the 1st of December Decem-ber last, I ventured to reserve for discussion at a later date the subject of additional legislation regarding the very difficult and intricate matter of trusts and monopolies. The time now seems opportune to turn to that great question not only because the currency cur-rency legislation, which absorbed your attention and the attention of the country in December, is now disposed dis-posed of, but also because opinion seems to be clearing about us with singular rapidity in this other great field of action. In the matter of currency cur-rency it cleared suddenly and very happily after the much debated act was passed; in respect of thef monopolies monop-olies which have multiplied about us and in regard to the various means by which they have been organized and maintained, it seems to be coming com-ing to a clear and all but universal agreement in anticipation of our action, ac-tion, as if by way of preparation, making the way easier to see and easier to set out on with confidence and without confusion of counsel. "Legislation has its atmosphere 'ike everything else, and the atmos-f-here of accommodation and mural mu-ral understanding which we now breathe with so much refreshment is i matter of sincere congratulation. It ought to make our task very much ess difficult and embarrassing than it would have been had we been obliged to continue to act amidst the atmosphere of suspicion and antagonism antagon-ism which has so long made it im-ncssible im-ncssible to approach such questions with dispassionate fairness. Constructive Con-structive legislation, when successful, success-ful, is always the embodiment of con-"incing con-"incing experience and of the ma-urs ma-urs public opinion which finally :prings out of that -experience. Leg-slation Leg-slation is a business of interpreta-;icn, interpreta-;icn, not of j origination, and it is now plain what the opinion is to which we must give effect in this matter, it is not recent or hasty opinion. It springs out of the experience of a whole generation. It has clarified itself it-self by long contest and those who for a long time battled with it and srught to change it are now frankly iiid honorably yielding to it and seeking to conform their actions to it. Ways of Liberty, Ways of Peace. "The great business men who organized or-ganized and financed monopoly and chose who administered it in actual every day transactions have year after af-ter year, until now, either denied its existence or justified it as necessary tor the effective maintenance and development of the vast business processes of the country in modern circumstances of trade and manufacture manu-facture and finance; but all the while opinion has made head against them. The average business man is convinced con-vinced that the ways of liberty are also the ways of peace and the ways of success as well, and at last the masters of business on the great scale have begun to yield their preference and purpose, perhaps their judgment also, in honorable surrender. "What we are purposing to do, therefore, is, happily, not to hamper or interfere with business as enlightened en-lightened business men prefer to do it, or in any sense to put it under the ban The antagonism between busi-nesi busi-nesi and government is over. We are now about to give expression to the best business judgment of America, ;o what we know to be the business conscience and honor of the law. The government and business men are x ready to meet eaeh other half way ;n a common effort to square business melhrds with both public opinion and h; law. The best informed men of '.hp business world condemn the me'.hcds and processes and consequences conse-quences of monopoly as we condemn them; and the instinctive judgment of the vast majority of business men everywhere gres with them. We shall now be their spokesmen. That is the strength cf our position and ;he sure prophecy of what will en-sup en-sup when cur reasonable work is dene. Safe and Sane Remedy. "When serious contest ends, wnen men unite in opinion and purpose, these who are to change their ways of business joining with those who ask for the change, it is possible to effect it in a way in which prudent and thoughtful and patriotic mep would wish to see it brought about. wi;h as few, as slight, as easy and simple business readjustments as possible pos-sible in the circumstances, nothing vss-n'.ial disturbed, nothing torn' up by Hie roots, no parts rent asunder, v hieh can be left in wholesome combination. com-bination. Fortunately, no measures of sweeping or novel change are necessary. It will be understood that cur ibioot is not to unsettle business or e' vv.-here seriously to break its es?al:''shed ccurser, nhv.art. On the contrary, we desire the laws we are now about to pass to be the bulwarks and safeguards of industry against the forces that have disturbed it. What we have to do can be done in a new spirit, in thoughtful moderation, modera-tion, without revolution of any untoward un-toward kind. "We are all agreed that private monopoly Is indefensible and intolerable intoler-able and our program is founded on that conviction, it will be a comparative compar-ative but not a radical or unacceptable unaccept-able program and these are its ii'.-ms, the changes which opinion deliber-, ately sanctions and for which business busi-ness waits: "It awaits with acquiescene, in the first place, for laws which will et-V"""ra!!y et-V"""ra!!y prohibit and prevent such In er-'.c eking of the personnel of the directorates of great- corporations banks and railroads, industrial, commercial com-mercial and public service bodies as in effect result in making those who borrow and those who lend practically prac-tically one and the same, those who sell and those who buy buL the same persons trading w'tli one another under un-der different names and in different combinations, and those who effect to compete in fact partners and masters mas-ters of some whole field of business. Sufficient time should be allowed, of course, in which to effect these changes of organizations, without inconvenience in-convenience or confusion. Time for Readjustment. "Such a prohibition will work much more than a mere negative good by correcting the serious evils which have arisen because, for example, ex-ample, the men who have been the directing spirits of the great investment invest-ment banks have usurped the place which belongs to independent industrial indus-trial management working in its own behalf. It will bring new men, new energies, a new spirit of initiative, new blood, into the management of our great business, enterprises, development de-velopment and organization to scores of men who have been obliged to serve when their abilities' entitled them to direct. It will immensely vhearten the young iinen coming on and will greatly enrich the business activities of the whole country. '1h the second place, business men as well as those who direct public affairs af-fairs now recognize, and recognize with painful clearness, the great harm and injustice which has been done to many, if not all, of the great railroad system of the country by the way in which they have been financed financ-ed and their own distinctive interests subordinated to the interests of the men who financed them and of other business enterprises which those men wished to promote. The country is ready, therefore, to accept, and accept ac-cept with relief, as well as approval, a law which will confer on the interstate inter-state commerce commission the power to superintend and regulate the financial operations by which the railroads are henceforth to be supplied sup-plied with the money they need for their proper development to meet the rapidly growing requirements of the country for increased and improved facilities of transportation. We cannot can-not postpone action in this matter without leaving the railroads exposed to many serious handicaps and hazards, haz-ards, and the prosperity of the railroads rail-roads and the prosperity of the country coun-try are inseparably connected. Upon this question those who are chiefly responsible for the actual management manage-ment and operation of the railroads hae spoken very plainly and very earnestly, with a purpuse we ought to be quick to accept. It will be one step, and a very important one, toward to-ward the separation of business of production from the business of production. pro-duction. To End Uncertainty. "The business of the country awaits also, has .long awaited and has suffered because it could not obtain, further and more explicit legislative definition of the policy and meaning of the existing antitrust law.. Nothing Noth-ing hampers business like uncertainty. uncer-tainty. Nothing daunts or discour-' ages it like the necessity to take chances, to run the risk of falling under the condemnation of the law Defore it can make sure just what the law is. Surely we are sufficiently familiar with the actual processes and methods of monopoly and of the many hurtful restraints of trade to make definition possible, at any rate up to the limits of what experience has disclosed. These practices, being be-ing now abundantly disclosed, can be explicitly and item by item forbidden forbid-den by statute in such terms as will practically eliminate uncertainty, the law itself and the penalty being made equally plain. "And the business men of the country desire something more than that the menace of legal process in the matter be made explicit and intelligible. They desire the advice, the definite guidance and information which can be supplied by an administrative adminis-trative body, an interstate trade commission. com-mission. "The opinion of the country would instantly approve cf such a commission. It would not wish to see it empowered to make terms with monopoly or in any way to assume control of business, as if the government govern-ment made itself responsible. "It demands such a commission only as an indispensable instrument of information and publicity, as a clearing house for the facts by which both the public mind and the managers manag-ers of great business undertakings should be guided and as an instrumentality instru-mentality for doing justice to business busi-ness where the process of the courts or the natural forces of correction outside the courts are inadequate to ad"i!St the remedy to the wrong in a way that will meet all the equities and circumstances of the case. Violations Dangerous. "Producing industries, for example vh'ch have passed the point up to vhich combination may be consistent with the public interest and the "reedom of trade, cannot always be dissected into their component units as readily as railroad companies or similar organizations can be. Their dissolution by ordinary legal process may oftentimes involve financial consequences con-sequences likely to overwhelm the se-"urity se-"urity market and bring on its breakdown break-down and confusion. There ought te be an administrative commissio capable of directing and shaping sue! corrective processes, not only in an of the courts, but also by independent independ-ent suggestion if necessary. "Inasmuch as our object and the spirit of cur action in these matters is to meet business halfway in its |