Nothing hampers business like uncertainty. Nothing daunts
or discourages it like the necessity to take chances, to run the risk of
falling under the condemnation of the law before it can make sure just
what the law is. Surely we are sufficiently familiar with the actual
processes and methods of monopoly and of the many hurtful restraints of
trade to make definition possible, at any rate up to the limits of what
experience has disclosed. These practices, being now abundantly
disclosed, can be explicitly and item by item forbidden by statute in
such terms as will practically eliminate uncertainty, the law itself and
the penalty being made equally plain.
And the business men of the country desire something more than that the
menace of legal process in these matters be made explicit and
intelligible. They desire the advice, the definite guidance and
information which can be supplied by an administrative body, an
interstate trade commission.
The opinion of the country would instantly approve of such a commission.
It would not wish to see it empowered to make terms with monopoly or in
any sort to assume control of business, as if the Government made itself
responsible.
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