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
"Corporations organized under this act should be prohibited from acquiring
and holding stock in other corporations (except for special reasons, upon
approval by the proper Federal authority), thus avoiding the creation under
national auspices of the holding company with subordinate corporations in
different States, which has been such an effective agency in the creation
of the great trusts and monopolies.
"If the prohibition of the anti-trust act against combinations in restraint
of trade is to be effectively enforced, it is essential that the National
Government shall provide for the creation of national corporations to carry
on a legitimate business throughout the United States. The conflicting laws
of the different States of the Union with respect to foreign corporations
make it difficult, if not impossible, for one corporation to comply with
their requirements so as to carry on business in a number of different
States."
I renew the recommendation of the enactment of a general law providing for
the voluntary formation of corporations to engage in trade and commerce
among the States and with foreign nations. Every argument which was then
advanced for such a law, and every explanation which was at that time
offered to possible objections, have been confirmed by our experience since
the enforcement of the antitrust, statute has resulted in the actual
dissolution of active commercial organizations.
It is even more manifest now than it was then that the denunciation of
conspiracies in restraint of trade should not and does not mean the denial
of organizations large enough to be intrusted with our interstate and
foreign trade. It has been made more clear now than it was then that a
purely negative statute like the anti-trust law may well be supplemented by
specific provisions for the building up and regulation of legitimate
national and foreign commerce.
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERTS NEEDED TO AID COURTS IN TRUST
DISSOLUTIONS.
The drafting of the decrees in the dissolution of the present trusts, with
a view to their reorganization into legitimate corporations, has made it
especially apparent that the courts are not provided with the
administrative machinery to make the necessary inquiries preparatory to
reorganization, or to pursue such inquiries, and they should be empowered
to invoke the aid of the Bureau of Corporations in determining the suitable
reorganization of the disintegrated parts. The circuit court and the
Attorney General were greatly aided in framing the decree in the Tobacco
Trust dissolution by an expert from the Bureau of Corporations.
FEDERAL CORPORATION COMMISSION PROPOSED.
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