ought to be relegated to private life. The belatedly upon scandals already lived down, chief test of a public man is his public-mind- and depicting them with a horrid eagerness edness. Where men are ready to sacrifice and a total disregard for proportion and perpublic interests for private, selfish, mercenary spective, all for the misguidance of unends, they are contemptible figures in public trained readers who ought to have been told life and should be whipped into retirement. the rounded, symmetrical truth.

This magazine has never had any apologies or excuses to make for Congressmen or other public officials of that type. But there has arisen a reckless fashion in certain quarters of imputing bad motives to public men on insufficient evidence. A certain respect is due to high office in itself. A great branch of our National Government is impugned as a whole, when mud is thrown in the face of the man whom it has chosen term after term to fill its one post of commanding authority. In no period since the foundation of the Government, more than a hundred and twenty years ago, has there been so high an average of intelligence and honesty in our public life at Washington as at the present time.

The

Mr. Taft's
Greatest
Message

On January 7 Congress received President Taft's special message discussing proposed changes in the laws governing railroads and industrial corporations. The message is an elaborate document that has created a widespread discussion because it involves possible changes of the most profound character. It begins with the recommendation of a United States Court of Commerce, to be composed of five federal circuit judges and to be given jurisdiction in a variety of cases arising under the Interstate Commerce laws and having to do especially with the regulation of railroads. Such cases can now be brought in any of the United States courts. To create the separate Commerce Court would bring about a better concentrated and more expeditious enforcement of the Government's control over the instrumentalities of national trade. In connection with this court an assistant AttorneyGeneral, acting under the direction of the Attorney-General on behalf of the Department of Justice, would represent the Government and would relieve the Interstate Commerce Commission of a part of the work that now devolves upon it when its decisions are appealed to the courts.

Changes in Railway Regulation

The so-called "muck-rakers Trade of the have sought to find blameworthy "Muck-raker" things, and have thrown these into high lights for sensational purposes. If they had sought to find praiseworthy things also, and had then endeavored to strike the just balance, they would have created a very different impression upon the public mind. Truth, of course, will usually prevail in the end. It is a very serious matter to speak evil of dignitaries, or to criticise and condemn the character and the motives of those who have built for themselves positions in public life. Not only should the journalist The next recommendation in the or magazine writer make sure of his facts message has to do with pooling before he prints aspersions upon public men, arrangements. The President but he should also search his own heart to says that he sees no reason why agreements make sure that he has the pure motives of a between carriers should not be permitted covcitizen trying to do his duty, even though ering such subjects as freight classifications painful and disagreeable. The constructive and rates, and passenger fares, provided processes of reform are usually more valu- copies of such agreements be filed with the able than the destructive. The dishonest Interstate Commerce Commission. It is sugpublic man, and the journalism of detrac- gested that the Commission have full power tion are both of them great evils. It is an to pass upon the classifications made by railopen question which is the worse. Newspapers roads for the purpose of fixing rates, and also and periodicals are the chief purveyors of or- that better opportunity should be given to dinary information about public affairs. And the shipper to ascertain the legal rate that in the long run the power for usefulness of our American press must be in proportion to its fairness, justice, and diligent search for the real facts. The so-called "muckrakers" have had little to do either with the reform of our city governments or the reform of our national politics. They have usually trailed along in the rear, stumbling

he is to be charged. It is recommended also
that the Interstate Commerce Commission be
empowered to investigate proposed changes
of rates, and to suspend increases for as much
as sixty days while looking into their reason-
ableness. Mr. Taft thinks that the shipper
should have a right to choose which one of
two or three established through routes shall

be made use of in the movement of his freight. All these matters involve very material increases in the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroads in their dealings with shippers.

Railroad
Stock

never given us. Mr. Taft seems to be hopeful that the statute as it stands may cease to be a menace to legitimate business, through established interpretations by the courts that will make corporations quite safe if behaving themselves well, while putting in peril those that exercise monopolistic power oppressively. It is not easy to accept Mr. Taft's reasoning along this line.

Federal
Incorporation

Mr. Taft proceeds,-after this judicial argument in favor of letting the Sherman Anti-Trust law remain as it is, to propose his remedy for the existing situation. He would provide for a method of granting federal incorporation to the good trusts. That is to say, he would substitute for the present method (of examining into the affairs of industrial corporations by the Department of Commerce and Labor) a plan by which great businesses would willingly subject themselves to government regulation under the terms of a national incorporation act. Mr. Taft proceeds to argue very ably in favor of a law providing for the voluntary federal incorporation of enterprises engaged in interstate commerce. In our opinion his arguments are convincing. The message concludes with

A very important section of the message has to do with prohibitIssues ing railroads from acquiring stock or in other ways getting interest in or control of competing lines. Mr. Taft advocates such a prohibition. He would not, however, attack existing relationships, but merely regulate future action. Furthermore, wherever, at the date of the passage of such an act, a corporation already owns as much as half of the stock of another company, he would not prohibit the absorption of the remaining half. Mr. Taft advises the passage of a law requiring that interstate carriers shall not henceforth issue stocks or bonds except in return for their par value in cash. He would have the Interstate Commerce Commission approve of the amount of stock and bonds to be issued. These proposals are, of course, subject to various modifications in detail. There are other suggestions, some of them intended to give the Interstate Commerce Commission greater authority to protect trainmen in pursuit of their hazardous a statement that the Attorney-General, at work by the use of improved appliances. Mr. Taft's suggestion, had prepared a bill Taken as a whole, the President's policy re- providing such a scheme. garding further steps in the regulation and control of railroads by the Government, and in the settling of disputes arising in the exercise of such control, is progressive, farreaching, and well worked out from the legal standpoint.

Trusts and How to Treat Them

So much for the first half of the message. The second half deals with the Anti-Trust law. Here we have a very deliberate and highly judicial analysis of the development of great corporations, the tendency toward monopoly, and the aims and meaning of the Sherman AntiTrust law. The object of that law, Mr. Taft says, was to suppress business abuses. "It was not to interfere with a great volume of capital which, concentrated under one organization, reduced the cost of production and made its profit thereby, and took no advantage of its size by methods akin to duress to stifle competition with it." What Mr. Taft seems to be giving us is that full and reasonable interpretation of the Sherman Anti-Trust law that we ought to have had long ago, but that in fact the courts have

The

Bill

Secretary Nagel had co-operated Wickersham with Mr. Wickersham; Senator Root and other legal advisers of the President had been consulted; and the bill appeared in the newspapers a few days after the President's message. The matter is one of such importance that a protracted and general discussion must be expected before such a bill can become a law. We shall have ample opportunity, therefore, in the pages of the REVIEW, to revert again and at more length to this topic. The bill makes it the duty of the Commissioner of Corporations to examine into all the preliminaries in the case of every application, and after due inquiry to issue a certificate of incorporation. It contains restrictions regarding stock issues in order to insure the sound and conservative financial character of every certificate-holder. Every company thus incorporated must file an annual report, covering specified matters. There is a clause in the bill which authorizes any federal corporation to hold a controlling interest in the stock of kindred State corporations under certain restrictions.

The ex

tent to which this would justify a great holding company like that of the Standard Oil of New Jersey has naturally been discussed in the newspapers. It should be remarked that this clause is in no way essential to the scheme as a whole, and it would naturally be made the subject of thorough debate in Congress before acceptance. In other words, the precise powers to be conferred upon industrial corporations chartered by the federal Government are a matter quite incidental to the project itself. The Wickersham draft for a federal incorporation act is a noteworthy piece of constructive work in law and government, and Mr. Taft's message on railway and anti-trust laws must be assigned the highest place in his achievements hitherto as lawyer and statesman. He is justified in asking the strong support of the Republican party in both Houses of Congress for a program which he has endeavored to work out in accordance with the platform of his party and in pursuance of his leading addresses and utterances ever since he became the party's candidate for the Presidency more than a year and a half ago. Yet it will be very difficult in the present session of Congress to complete any important railroad legislation and more difficult to secure the enactment of the Wickersham bill for federal incorporation.

A House

of

As an outcome of the now his

toric conference of State execuGovernors tives called together at Washington in May, 1908, by President Roosevelt, there assembled at the federal capital last month the Governors of thirty States, meeting as an independent, deliberative body for the purpose of "initiating, inspiring, and influencing uniform laws." While this con

gress, which soon came to be known as the Copyright, 1909, by Clinedinst
House of Governors," had no relation to
the National Government, and dealt almost
wholly with matters of State legislation, it
was addressed by President Taft and was a
thoroughly national gathering so far as rep-
resentation was concerned. It would have
probably been impossible to assemble such a
body at any other point than the city of
Washington. The desirability of securing
uniform legislation on such topics as Mar-
riage and Divorce, Pure Food, Insurance,
Extradition, Child Labor, Direct Primaries,
Convict Labor, Prison Reform, Inheritance
Tax, and Conservation of Natural Resources
is everywhere admitted. It is believed that
the Governors, by influencing legislation in
their respective States, can do more than any

other one agency to bring about uniformity in such legislation. If any attempt were to be made to secure these reforms through the action of Congress amendments to the federal Constitution would be required, and recent experience with the income tax shows that such procedure would be delayed almost interminably. Whether or not the results of this recent meeting of the House of Governors come immediately into view, it is certain that the discussion of so many topics of common interest in so public a manner is likely to have its influence on the legislation of many States, and such influence will be strongly in the direction of uniformity.

The Civi

The meeting of the National

Civic Federation at Washington Federation simultaneously with the conference of Governors was important in that it gave opportunity for the expression of opinion by labor leaders and the employers of labor on such vital questions as the proposition to compensate employees for injuries. It was recommended to the House of Governors and to the State legislatures of the country that workmen's compensation acts, fair to the employer and to the employee, and just to the State, be uniformly substituted for the present system of employer's liability for injuries received in the course of employment. The Federation also adopted resolutions favoring the adoption of uniform laws for the protection of children employed in factories, favoring a uniform insurance code for all the States, and strongly endorsing the conservation of forests and water powers. Senator Root made the interesting suggestion that a commissioners' court be created to draft uniform laws. The Federation authorized the appointment of a committee on legal procedure.

The New
Customs

Early last month President Taft

nominated the members of the Court Customs Court authorized by the Aldrich-Payne Tariff law. The Chief Justice of this new court will be the Hon. Alfred C. Coxe, of Utica, N. Y., United States Circuit Judge for the Second Judicial Circuit. The other members of the court will be: Marion De Vries, of California, who for the past ten years has been a member of the Board of General Appraisers of Customs at the port of New York; William H. Hunt, of Montana, United States District Judge for the District of Montana, and formerly Governor of Porto Rico; Gen. James F. Smith, of California, formerly GovernorGeneral of the Philippines, and O. M. Barber, a lawyer of Bennington, Vt. Decisions of contested cases in the collection of customs duties have been in great confusion for several years. It has been exceedingly difficult for the law officers of the Government to obtain consistent interpretations of the various provisions of the tariff law as applied to specific articles. It is believed that by concentrating the responsibility for deciding such cases in a single judicial body. much of the confusion that arises from these variations of interpretation will be removed. The new court will decide all contested cases without appeal, except on questions of constitutionality.

Perhaps the the most interesting Inter-State Park paragraphs in Governor Hughes' Projects message to the New York Legislature last month were those that announced the Harriman bequest to the State of lands for a State park, and of $1,000,000 of the Harriman fortune to be used for the purchase of other land adjacent. The 10,000 acres which the late railway financier desired to bequeath to the State is situated a few miles west of the Hudson River. The money added to the bequest for the purpose of purchasing adjacent land, together with a fund of $1,625,000 given by wealthy citizens of New York, will make possible the acquisition of large areas between the Harriman estate and the Hudson River. This latter gift to the State is conditional, however, on the transfer to another site of the State prison, which the State had planned to place near Highland Lake, and on the appropriation by the State of New Jersey, in which a part of the park is to be located, of money for its share of the cost. There is already a public reservation, known as Palisades Park, extending along the river to the southward.

(From a photograph taken last month in. the Mayor's office, City Hall, New York)