similar conditions, quickened by potent new forces, obtain in national and international trade and commerce at the present time. Indications of increased co-operation in the not distant future. among the organized business units of different countries appear on every side. The problem of international or rather supernational combinations promises to assume a position of importance in world trade equal to, if not greater, than the domestic "trust” question.

A universal reaction has set in against monopolistic combinations which have grown apace during the war. In one country after another parliamentary committees are wrestling with the "trust" problem. It is significant that in the reports and hearings made public thus far the international aspects of the combination movement are receiving almost as much attention as local and domestic sides of the question.

National Legislation Too Local to Master Difficulty.

It seems to be generally recognized that legislation by individual countries has not furnished a satisfactory solution. The chief obstacle has been the absence of co-ordinated action on the part of all governments concerned. Lack of uniform legislation and conflicting administrative policies have been very largely responsible for the unchecked growth of international combinations. In the one exception, that of the Brussels Sugar Convention, where the governments of the leading sugar producing and consuming countries of Europe agreed upon and enforced a joint policy, their common interest was effectively safeguarded.

When that Convention was formed, twenty years ago, Count Witte and others advocated an extension of its scope so as to bring the extraterritorial activities of all combinations within its jurisdiction. Substantially the same plan of an international trade commission is again being revived at the present time. Leading statesmen and influential and representative business men's organizations in the United States, England, Canada, South American countries, the Netherlands and in the Scandinavian countries have within the past year expressed themselves in favor

of establishing such an agency. The need of mutual protection against combinations whose ramifications reach beyond the jurisdiction of any one government and extend from country to country, is being recognized more fully as the potential dangers inherent in such cosmopolitan organizations become known through systematic official studies. Slowly but surely the movement for collective measures of defense, repression or supervision is crystallizing and of the many problems of reconstruction pressing for attention this one is apparently nearing the stage when definite action toward its solution will be effected.1

CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY CALLED FOR IN WORLD TRADE.

Doubtless in numerous instances, international combinations are the natural outcome of world-wide conditions in some particular commodity or manufactured article; and in those instances the situation must be permitted to adjust itself in accordance with the economic law of supply and demand. Where the importance of the article or the amount of traffic so demands, the combination may be made the subject of an international agreement, though such trust methods as concealment of profits. and secret coalitions make adjustment by and through diplomatic channels a tardy process-poor at its best. The number and size of these monopolies and their attitude toward the welfare of the people of the countries they supply, must be fully known before the ultimate consumer can estimate the toll which the combination extracts from his pockets. In some instances, the toll may be too small for serious consideration; but the facts should be afforded widespread publicity. To that end the list given in our text has been made exhaustive so far as the data now at hand permits.

While opinions may differ as to the wisdom of setting in motion the League of Nations as framed by President Wilson, it is certain the time has arrived for instituting some international trade council some world-wide governmental agency where combinations, "trusts" and patent monopolies, transcending the

1 See new phases of unfair competition. (In Yale Law Journal, March,

limits of any given country, however extensive its demesnes, can be placed under such measure of supervision and commercial control as the true interests of the people demand.

Commodities so essential as cotton and steel and vital medicines like quinine, should not be left to unregulated manipulation by exploiting promoters disguised as managers of international cartels and "trusts." Under modern conditions, users and consumers of those necessaries of life are entitled to that measure of consideration; and public interest should be conserved by official supervision of the business conducted under every worldembracing agreement where an article of general utility is concerned,

Such a protective alliance offers the only effective means of defense; and it should be instituted and maintained in the common interest.

CHAPTER XXII.

Should Commercial Corporations Receive International Charters?

Kaleidoscopic Changes Involve Formative Readjustment.

In this momentous period of human change and progress, it behooves every thinking man to project his mind into the realms of world-commerce, and to discover in what respects we should readjust our national facilities, to the end that American resources may be utilized to the fullest extent in commerce, domestic and foreign. And as some contribution directed toward the accomplishment of that useful purpose, we shall devote the ensuing chapter to advocacy of a system of standardized international corporations with broad charter-powers conferred, exercised and practiced under special provisions of treaties or conventions between the nations concerned, under the firm belief that corporations thus organized will prove a beneficent force that can solve numerous difficulties and remove many occasions for just complaint, and may even prevent or overcome the frictions and misunderstandings that lead to war; and particularly is this true when the basic idea here presented is conjoined with and made effective by a plan for mutual action akin to a League of Nations.

However, lest we fall into the vice of drawing conclusions before we have established our premises, we ask permission at this stage to discuss briefly certain fundamental points.

Let us begin with certain axioms concerning the evolution of national existence, somewhat in the manner of the familiar parallel column.

In pursuance of our plan, we are led to enquire into the progressive stages through which nations have progressed:

First: All government consists in the surrender of some portion of individual liberty.

Second: Federation consists in a surrender of some portion of local or state government to a central authority.

Third: International agreements and regulations, also the League of Nations, if and when instituted, call for a further surrender to a paramount control.

Parallel Reasoning Applied to Corporate Development.

Advancement in the corporate idea is evolved by corresponding

steps:

First: In the usual form of commercial companies, an individual investor surrenders the initiative and control of the enterprise to the corporate body, subject in a moderate degree to local governmental control.

Second: Since a comparatively recent date, but with a duration no one can predict, the Federal Government has grown to be a potent, if silent, factor in practically all corporate managements and activities. Recent war-time experience in that field has taught us we cannot think locally hereafter. Henceforth the people of America acting through the Federal Government are destined to be potential participants in most corporate enterprises.

Third; In an international corporation, this national prerogative of corporation control must in its turn become subject to a still higher power, instituted by international treaty or convention. -a directing power measurably corresponding to the paramount influence and authority exercised by the League of Nations under the form of treaty propounded by the Peace Conference at Paris.

Course of Improvement Through Corporate Progress.

Having completed our comparison of the processes of development which human experience has produced in those cognate fields, let us now proceed to scrutinize the lines of procedure necessary to effectuate the establishment of this novel institution. -the international corporation.