The St. Johns herald., 1893-06-15
IndTidualiSm as a Sociological
 Principle.


 petition the helpfulness to produc- ton in which we have been taught to believe, what must be said oi those gigantic monopolies, with power to be helpful but in fact of ten cruel, which the let alone sys- tenn cherishes to new power and numbers daily, whose purpose and whose result is to kill out competi- tion within their scope. When, in Henry VII.'s time, Lambert Simnel sought to impose himself upon Eng land as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, son of the murdered Duke of Clarence, it was objected to. him, first, that they did not want another Yorkist on the English throne any way, and, secondly that lie was not Yorkist at all, but an impostor. Similarly, one might ob- feet to our old economic order; first, that laissez- -faire at all, is in many ways an evil at best, and, secondly, that the system so named frequent y does not yield genuine laissez- faire at all, but quite the reverse. Witness our railway pools, coal pools, beef pools, manufacturers leagues, the Knights of Labor, trades unions and innumerable oth- CT combinations similar in nature. Current tirades against the tyranny of labor organizations contain most telling arguments against the lais- sez-faire theory. In fact, nothing could be more erroneous than to identify the let alone policy with real individual liberty policy.
 Many cling to the delusion that these mighty combinations of capi- tai are to pass away, and old-time competition to return. Bills have been brought before half the legis latures of the Union to compel free competition by making trade syn dicates more illegal than they are. Depend upon It, such legislation is vain. The age of competition as we have known it is gone forever. Recall it? As we'll try to waken the dead In simple industries, whose capital is small and little special ized, competition has worked well and will continue. The weakest party drops from the strife to day, tomorrow the next weakest, and so on. But each loss is slight. The unfortunate entrepreneur lets him. self for wages, and his stock passes to another. In such businesses competition is the best practicable way to insure a healthy life. Not so when the competitors are indus trial Titans, each with plant worth its millions, much of it so special ized that to relinQuish business is to sink it utterly. In such cases, which more and more each year represent the worlds industry, com petition cannot end with a little friction. It grinds, and, in time, kills. The great mill, placed at a disadvantage by position, by some tariff act, or perhaps by railway discrimination, is yet forbidden to shut down. That were to lose all. Better keep running and lose less than all. The least penny over fixed charges and running expenses is better than nothing. Down to that dead line at least the strife is likely to go on, the stockholders impover- ishing themselves that their mill may compete. At last a bankrupt sale ensues, machinery going for funk, the building left to collapse from decay. Competitors survive, but of course poorer because of the war. Here, too, competition has proved a regulator-as Caesar kept the peace in Gaul.
 Fortunately, men have learned of q better regu a.or, viz, combination, Instead of keeping up that mortal conflict, they unite, pool their in- terests, make common cause against others trying to enter the field, par eel out the production in as fair