Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/238

 224 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

I do not scruple to say that in my judgment the more a thoughtful mind reflects on the first question, the more unhesitatingly will an affirmative answer be returned.

That regulation by Congress in this way would indirectly or remotely affect production would be no bar. The very point of the sugar-trust case was that a consolidated scheme of production might lead to commerce, or might indirectly or remotely affect commerce, but did not for that reason invoke the federal power over commerce ; and the illustration from the con- verse of the situation is significant on the point just stated.

Congress under this power prevents the importation or transportation of articles deemed injurious to the general welfare. Thus the laws subject the movement of explosives to safeguards and burdens; absolutely excludes impure literature and diseased cattle, convicts and contract labor; and scru- tinizes and prevents or checks many foreign and interstate movements, throughout the entire field of national and international intercourse, in the interest of all the people, on the ground of commercial, hygienic, or ethical policy. Who shall set limits now, in advance of a carefully framed and judi- cially tested law, to the competence of Congress to regulate commerce in the way suggested, in the exercise of the legislative wisdom and the wide discre- tion confided to it ? Who shall say that the power of Congress does not extend so far ? I think it does. I am quite sure that no one can now say that it does not.

As to suggesting specific legislation for the control of indus- trial combinations, that is beyond the scope of this thesis. To the writer, however, it seems that we know too little of the real nature of the problem presented to rush headlong into any legis- lation. Attorney-General Knox in the address above referred to stated well the conditions when he said :

The conditions of our commercial life are, as I have said, the result in part of an evolution of forces of world-wide operation. They have developed gradually and are not, perhaps, fully understood. Laws regulating and con- trolling their operation, before they ripen into a complete system of jurispru- dence, will be of gradual growth.

It is to be hoped that from the investigations that undoubt- edly will be pursued by the new Department of Commerce and Labor some proper basis may be formed to determine the pre- cise nature of action necessary. If it be found necessary to institute publicity, then, by all means, let us have publicity through this new department. If it is found that combinations are given abnormal power through the possession of special privileges, as freight-rate discriminations or a prohibitive tariff,