Workmen's advocate., 1888-02-25
A SUMNER JUGGLE.
ALEARNED PROFESSOR" "PUTS
 HIS FOOT IN IT,"
Natural Monopoly. Natural Filth and Natural Small p0X Pestilential
 Blessings.

It has been generally accepted, by the "plain people" to be sure, that monopolies are not particularly benefcert institutions. even as re- gards the "greatest good to the great est number" to say nothing of the whole. In fact, experience has taught this same "plain people, that mon- opolies invariably were the means of exploiting the producers, whether mental or manual, to the uttermost farthing.
 Indeed, the popular good sense has been so thoroughly impressed with the innate ylciousness of mon opolies that they have become a synonym for all that is evil as re- gards the general veal. But it seems that the "plain people, are as usual egregrlous asses. As custom ary, they have neglected to apply those "scientitic tests' to their con clusions which would have at once convinced them of their erroneous deductions and would have com pelled them, however contrary to ex- pcrience, to hail even the most monstrous monoply as one of the greatest, yes, the most supreme boons in the "order of nature" But happily for the befogged mass of incompetent thinkers-the "plain people'-thc "order of nature' has provided a means for their enlight- ennent. A writer of an "import- ant paper in the Mdependeat, who, by the way, is professor of enor- nous repute, clearly demonstrates that this universal notion that mon- opolies are necessarily villalnous is sheer idiocy.
 But let us hear what our most potently learned and epigrammatic professor really says.
 After an array of details, laby- rinthian in their intricacies, he sum- marizes thus:
 Monopoly is not an invention of men. least of all a modern invention or a pro duet of capitalistic society. It is inter- woven with the whole life of man on earth, in all it's forms and from the earliest times. It is not reasonable to denounce natural monopolies because, if they are founded in the order of na- ture, no one is to blame for them. and nothing can modify them but such ap, plication of intelligence as may change their form, or combine their action with new forces. Neither are natural mon- opolies all. or always, mischievous They have great utility and advantage" etc.
 Thus saith the professor.
 In scanning this paragraph by the learned gentleman, which, by the way, IS d fair eptome of the entire article, we observe several aflirma- tions.
 First-"Monopoly is not an in- vention of man."
 Second-"lt Is not reasonable to denounce natural monopolies. be- canse, if they are founded in the order of nature, no one Is to blame for them."
 Third" Neither are natural monopolies all. or always, mis- they have great utility | md advantage '
 How sweetly consoling it is to be thus convinced by one of the great | oracles of science, that this piece of | elaborate mechanism for wholesale | robbery, which, in its diverse forms, has ground to abject poverty thous- inds, aye, millions of the contemp- ,ible chaff, otherwise known as the ! plain people, is not an invention of 1 nan at all.
 How ineffably soothing it must be to that large but unfortunate con- .ingent, the riff-raff of Gods crea- lures, who labor for some giant and receive but a pitiful for their toil, to know hat no one IS to blame for thls in- human ogre which is glutting itself 0 corpulency on their very life