classes of securities are enough for an honest corporation, and
the public interest requires the charter of no other class of companies.
Let us have done, too, with the iniquitous custom of one corporation
holding another's stock or bonds. With a few such simple reforms as
these effected, the holders of stock in our corporations would have some
idea where they stand and what their securities represent, and would
take some interest in the control of their property.

With these reforms, in the case of every corporation making a contract
to restrict competition, it would be required that the company make
public annually a full statement of its receipts, expenditures, and
profits. Every monopoly would stand before the public then in its true
position, and every one would know if it were making 50 per cent. per
annum on the actual capital invested, or only 5 per cent. With these
facts made public, if any monopoly ventured to raise its price till it
reaped unusual profits, some of the heaviest consumers of the
monopolized product would be very apt to start a factory of their own in
opposition. It is to be remembered that under the law of
_non-discrimination_ the monopolies would be prevented from currying
favor with the large consumers by giving them specially favorable
prices. It is now common to do this, as it removes the danger of
combination among these important customers to compete with the
monopoly.

To sum up, the chief features of the plan proposed for the control of
monopolies in manufacture and trade are as follows: Make contracts to
restrict competition, legal and binding, instead of illegal and void as
now. _But_; provide that every such contract shall be filed for public
inspection; that prices charged by the combination shall be public,
stable, and absolutely unvarying to all; that the affairs of the
combination shall be managed according to a consistent and stringent
corporation law; and that an annual report of the operations of the
combination be made to a public commission.

Contrast this with the existing law upon this important subject. In
Judge Barrett's decision in the Sugar Trust case he said:

"The development of judicial thought, in regard to contracts in
restraint of trade, has been especially marked. The ancient
doctrine upon that head has been weakened and modified to such a
degree that but little if any of it is left. Indeed, excessive
competition may sometimes resul