AMERICA'S ANTI-TRUST LEGISLATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 66, 13 November 1914, Page 4

AMERICA'S ANTI-TRUST LEGISLATION.

The San Francisco correspondent of the Wellington Post, writing on October 13th, says the anti-trust, legislation—the last of the big policy measures which President Wi|son ( insisted upon. Congress adopting at, this, session ,—is gbppt ( concluded, ami within, thf next few; days Congress will., adjourn .after beiifg’ continuously ,in session for i more than eighteen months.. This will give Verniers scant opportunity jbo prepare for. the 1 election bn the 3rd day of : next month, but the President has refused to allow that consideration to " have any weight ..with him. Tw^p.nn- , portant measures are comprised in the anti-trust hgisla^jpn_■ th,at. hap .been 'adopted.' One provides* for the establishment of a Federal Trade Commission, which will have similar jurisdiction over corporations and" individuals doing an inter-state business as the Interstate Commerce Commission has over railways. Its inquisitorial power’s are very wide, and business houses that do not conform to the law will find it impossible to carry on. The other measure, is known as th§Xlayton Bill,, and it supplements and, the Sherman law, under which in the last twelve years so many corporations, have been checked and punished. This, new law provides “fines* and imprisonment for officers of'corporations convicted of offences against the trust laws; 1 prohibits exclusive and. tying contracts, which restrict independence of purchasers.-; prohibit holding companies where their effect is to lesson competition or create monopoly; and makes illegal, two years after the passing of the Act. interlocking directorates in competing corporations, any one of which has a capital of £200,000. It also forbids the interlocking of railway directorates with those of corporations dealing in securities, railway supplies, or con--1 tracts, and liberalises procedure in injunction and contempt cases. A section of the law which has been the occasion of fierce criticism, but which has been retained by both Houses, exempts from prosecution, under the anti-trust laws, agricultural, 1 orticultural, fraternal, and labour organisations. Enemies of the administration have described this as truckling to the farmers and labour unions. The maximum penalty fixed for violation of the provision preventing exclusive contracts is £IOOO, or one year’s imprisonment, of both. The most drastic feature of the legis abe:i is that fixing personal responsibility for violations of the trust statutes on. officers and directors of corporations. In the past, corporations, after making immense profits by breaking the law. have escaped with mere lines.