Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/492

 The Legal World insurance must join a society. Those who do not join are mere "deposit con tributors," entitled to draw relief only on the basis of their actual contributions to the general fund. In addition to insurance against sick ness, a system of insurance against em ployment is also provided. For the present it will apply only to seven enumerated trades, but the Board of Trade has the power to add others from time to time. The unemployment in surance fund will be raised by weekly contributions from employer and em ployee of five cents each for each period of a week or less. The state contribu tion to the fund will be one-third of the total contributions from workmen and employers. No contribution is required while the workman is unemployed for any cause. The benefits provided con sist of weekly payments to the workmen while unemployed of $1.75 a week up to a maximum of fifteen weeks in any twelve months. A workman will not receive this benefit if he has been em ployed in an insured trade for less than twenty-six weeks in the last five years, or if he is capable of work and able to get it. Nor will he receive benefit if he has lost employment through a strike or lockout or through misconduct, or has voluntarily thrown up his job with out just cause, or is in receipt of sickness benefit. The Stanley Report

The Stanley Committee which inves tigated the affairs of the United States Steel Corporation submitted its report to the House of Representatives Aug. 2. In addition to the regular report of the Committee, signed by the Democratic members, four dissenting reports were filed. The majority report disapproves of the proposed control of corporations by the

453

federal Government as "semi-socialistic" and unconstitutional, and urges the remedies of publicity, strict enforcement of the laws, and examination of corporate affairs by the Bureau of Corporations. The interesting statement is made that the enormous earnings of the Steel Cor poration are due not to its superior eco nomic efficiency, but to its ownership of ore reserves out of all proportion to its requirements and to its control and operation of common carriers and ter minals from which it secures an inequi table division of rates. The legislation proposed is in the form of three bills. The first bill, com monly known as the Brandeis bill, would give an injured party the right to insti tute suit to prevent the organization of a combination in restraint of trade. It also transfers the burden of proof to the defendant, to show that its re straint of trade is "reasonable," in view of a presumption that every corporation controlling more than 30 per cent of its particular line of business is engaged in unreasonable restraint of trade. The second bill is designed to prevent indirect control of common carriers by corporations engaged in the manufac tures of railroad cars, rails, or structural steel. The third bill is likewise intended to hit at the system of interlocking directorates and to separate industrial and railroad business. From this report Representative Little ton dissented with regard to the provi sion fixing the burden of proof on the defendant corporation. He also charged that the chief bill reported would per petuate the chief fault of the Sherman act by dealing with symptoms and ignoring the disease. A minority report signed by two Republican members recommended a federal incorporation law, further govern ment regulation, publicity, and gov