articles, from wire nails to bath-tubs or mowing machines, have been regulated by some form of open agreement, secret or suggested.

Earl Grey, of Canada, at the opening of the Congress of the International Coöperative Alliance, at Glasgow, in August, 1913, said:

"Coöperation would put a barrier against the tyranny of the trusts, and would reconcile the warring forces of labor and capital.

"The application of the coöperative principle to the industrial life of Great Britain, United States, France, Germany, Denmark, and Ireland was proved by the substitution of organized distribution for unorganized distribution, coöperative buying for individual buying, coöperative transportation and marketing for individual selling, and the coöperative use of power for individual use of machinery. The wants of both producer and consumer could thereby be met more effectively at a smaller cost, thus obtaining for the consumer a reduction in the cost of living and a greater command not only of the necessaries, but of the comforts and conveniences of life, and to the producer a substantial increase in the amount of net profits available for distribution, which meant an increased fund, from which alone could be drawn the high wages desired for underpaid workers.

"In the civilized world the remarkable growth of the coöperative movement justified the confident expectation that a day of new social order was at hand."

Legitimate combination among intelligent business men results in economy in manufacture, and combinations of this character and efficiency are beneficial when the consumer participates in the advantages thereof.

PUBLICITY

Combinations,-in the form of Trusts or otherwise, operating in restraint of trade or commerce, in any form, should be subject to full publicity as to their affairs, including the percentage of business controlled, division of territory, and origination of price fixing, if any.

Up to the present time the enforcement of the Sherman Law has not prevented the growth of Trusts in this country, since innumerable combinations in restraint of trade are developed from year to year, and seem to be on the increase.

Publicity of corporation affairs and methods should be confined to those corporations found upon investigation guilty of violating the laws in restraint of trade and against monopoly. Justice to corporations acting within the law and trying to do what is right and honorable demands the keeping secret by the Government officials of their business methods, in order that competitors and rivals in the same class of business may not profit by the information obtained by the Government investigators.

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Many of our large corporations are desirous of having their affairs constantly under supervision by a Federal Interstate Trade Commission appointed by the Government, so that they may have knowledge as to whether or not they are operating in violation of the Sherman Law. This being the case, why should not the same class of machinery that has been successful in the control of the railroad corporations of the United States be applied to our large industrial organizations?

The average business man does not understand the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. This is due to supposedly conflicting decisions of the United States Supreme Court and the opinion of his eminent counsel. Many defendants, who have testified in their own behalf in recent suits brought by the Government, have made the statement that they did not understand the Sherman Anti-Trust Law and had gone into the combination under advice of noted counsel. The appointment of a Federal Interstate Trade Commission would be the means of instructing the business man as to the intent of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, as to just how far business men may go in their schemes in the coöperation, amalgamation, and concentration of their

affairs, without being subject to civil prosecution and at times having to face the disgrace of a criminal indictment. Such men should have an opportunity of knowing what the Government regards as permissible.

Any business in restraint of trade and commerce controlling 70 per cent of the market should be considered a monopoly, and should become liable to investigation by a Federal Interstate Trade Commission,-a commission that could only be created by the Federal Government. The States would fall into line and make laws that would take care of trade and commerce within their borders.

The affairs of a Federal Interstate Trade Commission should be kept wholly separate from those of the United States courts.

The rulings of a Federal Interstate Trade Commission should be final, and should go into effect without delay. In case of violations of the rulings of the Commission, the matter should immediately become a question for the consideration of the Attorney-General of the United States, who should proceed against the offending corporation under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. This method would give the Trusts, and particularly the Government, opportunities to bring out additional facts,-facts kept from the Federal Interstate Trade Commission and the Bureau of Corporations, and assure also a fair trial before the proper tribunals.