And State Papers 105 



This is not the case with the ordinary so-called 

 "trust" to-day; for the trust nowadays is a large 

 State corporation, which generally does business in 

 other States, often with a tendency toward monop 

 oly. Such a trust is an artificial creature not wholly 

 responsible to or controllable by any legislation, 

 either by State or nation, and not subject to the jur 

 isdiction of any one court. Some governmental sov 

 ereign must be given full power over these artificial, 

 and very powerful, corporate beings. In my judg 

 ment this sovereign must be the national govern 

 ment. When it has been given full power, then this 

 full power can be used to control any evil influence, 

 exactly as the government is now using the power 

 conferred upon it by the Sherman anti-trust law. 



Even when the power has been granted it would 

 be most unwise to exercise it too much, to begin by 

 too stringent legislation. The mechanism of modern 

 business is as delicate and complicated as it is vast, 

 and nothing would be more productive of evil to all 

 of us, and especially to those least well off in this 

 world's goods, than ignorant meddling with this 

 mechanism above all, meddling in a spirit of class 

 legislation or hatred or rancor. It is eminently nec 

 essary that the power should be had, but it is just as 

 necessary that it should be exercised with wisdom and 

 self-restraint. The first exercise of that power should 

 be the securing of publicity among all great corpora 

 tions doing an interstate business. The publicity, 

 though non-inquisitorial, should be real and thor 

 ough as to all important facts with which the pub- 



