State of the Union AddressesTaft, William H. (William Howard)
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State of the Union Addresses
Taft, William H. (William Howard)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
I see no objection-and indeed I can see decided advantages-in the enactment
of a law which shall describe and denounce methods of competition which are
unfair and are badges of the unlawful purpose denounced in the anti-trust
law. The attempt and purpose to suppress a competitor by underselling him
at a price so unprofitable as to drive him out of business, or the making
of exclusive contracts with customers under which they are required to give
up association with other manufacturers, and numerous kindred methods for
stifling competition and effecting monopoly, should be described with
sufficient accuracy in a criminal statute on the one hand to enable the
Government to shorten its task by prosecuting single misdemeanors instead
of an entire conspiracy, and, on the other hand, to serve the purpose of
pointing out more in detail to the business community what must be
avoided.
FEDERAL INCORPORATION RECOMMENDED.
In a special message to Congress on January 7, 1910, I ventured to point
out the disturbance to business that would probably attend the dissolution
of these offending trusts. I said:
"But such an investigation and possible prosecution of corporations whose
prosperity or destruction affects the comfort not only of stockholders but
of millions of wage earners, employees, and associated tradesmen must
necessarily tend to disturb the confidence of the business community, to
dry up the now flowing sources of capital from its places of hoarding, and
produce a halt in our present prosperity that will cause suffering and
strained circumstances among the innocent many for the faults of the guilty
few. The question which I wish in this message to bring clearly to the
consideration and discussion of Congress is whether, in order to avoid such
a possible business danger, something can not be done by which these
business combinations may be offered a means, without great financial
disturbance, of changing the character, organization, and extent of their
business into one within the lines of the law under Federal control and
supervision, securing compliance with the anti-trust statute.
"Generally, in the industrial combinations called 'trusts,' the principal
business is the sale of goods in many States and in foreign markets; in
other words, the interstate and foreign business far exceeds the business
done in any one State. This fact will justify the Federal Government in
granting a Federal charter to such a combination to make and sell in
interstate and foreign commerce the products of useful manufacture under
such limitations as will secure a compliance with the anti-trust law. It is
possible so to frame a statute that while it offers protection to a Federal
company against harmful, vexatious, and unnecessary invasion by the States,
it shall subject it to reasonable taxation and control by the States with
respect to its purely local business. * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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