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Show NEW PROGRAM 15 ANNOUNCED Scientific Investigation of Industrial In-dustrial Situation to Begin in December. WILSON WANTS FACTS People Want to Know Which Is Best, Competitive, or Monoplistic Production. AHantU City. N J . Oct. 31. Tho beginning of a new, scientific investigation inves-tigation of the Industrial situation, under the direction of President Wilson Wil-son which will contribute to the administration's ad-ministration's trust legislation program pro-gram at the session of congress beginning be-ginning December L, was announced here last night by Commissioner Joseph Jo-seph E. Davies. of the bureau of corporations cor-porations in an address before the National Association cf Hardware Dealers. "Whether a competitive system of large units or a monopolistic system Is the most advantageous to society-Is society-Is the oucstlon the bureau will attempt, at-tempt, to determine "It is characteristic of the quality of mind of the president 0f the United Unit-ed States that he should desire facts on which to base his judgment. ' said Commissioner Davies. "We shall en-tor en-tor into this investigation with the sole lutent of working out in a scientific sci-entific and fair-minder spirit, he facts, absolutely as they are Solution of Trust Problem Commissioner Davies declared thai the ultimate solution of the trust problem depended upon Ihe deter-i deter-i minatlon of the question his bureau I would investigate This Investigation be believed would determine whether j the problem mlht be solved by amendments to the Sherman law; by I an industrial trade commission or by action looking to regulation by the individual states. If the monopolistic monopolis-tic system should be found to be most efficient there still would remain, re-main, he said, in spite of that fact. B question whether the governifent should maintain an attitude against monopoly by reason of other and greater additional evils it induces He said one of the chief concerns of the people was which form of production, competitive or monopolistic, monopol-istic, can produce and sell what the public buys most cheaply, consistent with a fair standard of living for workers. He sketched the business prowth of the country and the r!se of the corporation Twenty two Billions in Trusts. Within the last decade and a half. ' he said, "two hundred corporations corpor-ations hnvp come into property of more than twenty-two billion dollars. Two hundred artificial persons own three times as much wealth as the country owned in 1850. "This fact is not cited as an Indictment In-dictment against the men engaged in these enterprises but simply to show the way In which we are grow-Ing. grow-Ing. The period of greatest development develop-ment In this movement occurred in the fact of the Sherman law and prior to 1304 when It first was sought to make It an active agency for the I government "The unorganized many are demanding de-manding that law shall protest their rights from the encroachment of the organized few. Government, or society, so-ciety, is concerned with Ihese tremendous tre-mendous Industrial units on several different angles. What effect have these gigantic concentrations had upon up-on the question of representative government and its perpetuity0 Is there danger of Ihe child becoming greater than the parent? What i guards must the stale throw about Itself so that powers of government may not be subverted by the, greed of men? Economic Aspects "The economic aspects of the problem, prob-lem, the fair, just attitude of the government to capital Invested and , men Interested in and dlrectng Ihese great enterprises, as well as to the public at large and what shall ha done to preserve freedom of opportunity oppor-tunity for business Is the problem in which congress will address Itself In the Immediate future This problem reaches down to the fundamentals of government itself, it will t;i th. greatest inirifK of this generation and the next. In Us so-' lutlOD there la a call to all upstanding, upstand-ing, thlnkug patrotlc men to aid In preserving conditions which bhull safeguard the liberties of men and that there may be an Industrial freedom free-dom founded in this country which shall safeguard the liberties of men i and that there may be an Industrial j freedom founded in this country which shall enable our children to be men not slaves, cither to an ln- j dustrlal hierarchy or to a govern - , mental despotism " |
