Popular Law-making: A study of the origin, history, and present tendencies of law-making by statuteStimson, Frederic Jesup
History
Popular Law-making: A study of the origin, history, and present tendencies of law-making by statute
Stimson, Frederic Jesup
Legislation -- United States
It has not been the intention of the committee to draft a law which
will be favorable to the organization of large corporations popularly
known as "trusts." Inasmuch as the recommended law requires taxes to
be paid upon the full value of the corporate franchise, which is, at
least to some extent, measured by the amount of capitalization, there
will always be this very potent reason for keeping capitalization
at the lowest possible point. Indeed, it is apprehended that the
organization of a corporation large enough to control a monopoly of
any staple article is practically prohibited by the provisions of the
recommended law as to taxation, which will be referred to in greater
detail in part II of this report. At all events, it is no better for
the State to leave its citizens at the mercy of the large corporations
created by other less careful sovereignties, than to permit the
organization of corporations adequate to the demands of modern
business under its own laws, subject to its own more careful
regulation and control. Under our State and Federal system it is
practically impossible for any one State, by its own laws, to control
foreign corporations, but so far as possible at present the committee
has sought to subject them to the same safeguards of reasonable
publicity and accurate returns, both as to organization and annual
condition, as the State requires of its own corporations. The simple
requirement of an annual excise tax, based on the capitalization of
such foreign corporations, will serve to bring them under the control
of this State and the way will be open for their further regulation if
desirable. This annual tax has been levied upon the same principle
as the corresponding tax paid by home corporations. The State should
impose no greater burden on foreign corporations than on its own, but
should, so far as possible, subject them to its own laws.
The recommendations of the committee have, therefore, been controlled
by three principles, which may be summarized as follows:
_First_.--The relation of the State to the corporation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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