any magnitude. It is absurd to say that the courts can
lay down such rules. The most the courts can do is to find as legal or
illegal the particular transactions brought before them. Hence, after
years of tedious litigation there would be no clear-cut rule for future
action. This method of procedure is dealing with the device, not the
result, and drives business to the elaboration of clever devices, each
of which must be tested in the courts.

"I have yet to find a better method of dealing with the anti-trust
situation than that suggested by the bill which we agreed upon in the
last days of your Administration. That bill should be used as a basis
for legislation, and there could be incorporated upon it whatever may
be determined wise regarding the direct control and supervision of
the National Government, either through a commission similar to the
Inter-State Commerce Commission or otherwise."

Before taking up the matter in its large aspect, I wish to say one word
as to one feature of the Government suit against the Steel Corporation.
One of the grounds for the suit is the acquisition by the Steel
Corporation of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company; and it has been
alleged, on the authority of the Government officials engaged in
carrying on the suit, that as regards this transaction I was misled by
the representatives of the Steel Corporation, and that the facts were
not accurately or truthfully laid before me. This statement is not
correct. I believed at the time that the facts in the case were as
represented to me on behalf of the Steel Corporation, and my further
knowledge has convinced me that this was true. I believed at the time
that the representatives of the Steel Corporation told me the truth as
to the change that would be worked in the percentage of the business
which the proposed acquisition would give the Steel Corporation, and
further inquiry has convinced me that they did so. I was not misled. The
representatives of the Steel Corporation told me the truth as to what
the effect of the action at that time would be, and any statement that I
was misled or that the representatives of the Steel Corporation did
not thus tell me the truth as to the facts of the case is itself not in
accordance with the truth. In _The Outlook_ of August 19 last I gave
in full the statement I had made to the Investigating Committee of the
House of Representatives on this matter. That statement is accurate, and
I reaffirm everythin