ITEMS OF INTREST July 29, 1911 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Attorney-General Wickersham, in an address before the Minnesota Bar Association, declared that government commission is desirable to regulate great industrial organizations in the same way that the interstate commerce commission regulates railways; law of supply and demand no longer controls prices in the United States. Prices in all great staple industries are fixed by agreement between principal producers and not by normal play of free competition. Probably no one thing has done more to facilitate restraint of trade and the growth of monopoly than the departure from the early rule of law that one corporation cannot hold stock in another. By government control a national economic force may be utilized to the public benefit and to the general satisfaction of the commercial world. Under federal supervision thousands of small traders may, by regulated cooperation, protect themselves from the ruin of destructive competition on the one hand and from the constant apprehension of indictment on the other.

The treaty between the United States and Great Britain providing for the arbitration of pecuniary claims between the two countries in accordance with the general arbitration treaty, has received the ratification of the Senate. The treaty provides that within four months either of the governments may submit to the other any claims which it desires shall be passed upon. All claims not submitted within the time specified are to be barred.

An investigation of pipe lines, their rates, classifications, and regulations, has been ordered by the interstate commerce commission. Informal complaints have been made to the commission that certain pipe lines are being operated in an unlawful manner and to the prejudice of the interests of oil shippers.

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