The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-06-20
MONOPOLY Is EvoLur1orAL.

Some Original Views From One of
the Leaders of Reform.
The fact is before US that monopoly has
seized every source Of wealth in the coun-
try and that under this regime the rich are
growing richer and the poor are growing
poorer Another fact is equally palpable.
that from business patrimony every one Of
us Is an alder and abettor in monopoly,
whether we like it or not, and that every
effort of ours to perpetuate or modify a
system that necessarily breeds it, augments
it's power and paves the way for new re-
cruits of sorrow along the very lines where
we propose to reform.
Our competitive system, whose ripened
fruits of oppression we are now reapng,
has been transmitted to us; we inherit it;
we are obliged as yet to accept and act by
it, or fall and die as cumberers of the
ground. Does it therefore follow that
there is no better way? What is adapta-
BILE to one age is not always adaptable to
another. New sciences and arts, evolving
new Inventions, necessitate changes in
government and business policy.
For data let us go back no farther than
the farmers were the money loaners. and
therefore the most influential class. Just
like our lords today, they clamored for high
interest. A few decades and they find
themselves financially and socially in the
rear. What has reversed the extremes
Competition and its sequential combina-
ton. Like all other sources. the financial
gravitated into the easiest channel where
promised the swiftest and greatest profits
", not, md
mercial Improved machinery bought and
applied was employed to abbridge costs
What next? Labor appeared less irksome
in the factories than on the farms. II
f1ocked to the cities and the farms began tC
wane. What added strength to the policy
was the delusive protection of high tariff
What became a solid addenda was and is
our British bank system, controlled by the
| favored class. Investments in all the ma
| terial resources of wealth, together with
| land speculation and exorbitant interest
with low wages and low prices Compared
and thence the money lords in legislation
| became a usurpation of the rights of the
| farmers and left them alone in their iso
| lated glory. Hence the farmers have
| ceased to be money loaners and have be
| come money dependents and borrowers
| therefore they demand low rates of inter
| est to retrieve themselves.
Is this return, SC earnestly sought, to
| their former vantage ground to be encour-
aged as the reform absolutely needed under
| existing circumstances? Suppose our farm
| ers to be what their fathers and grand
fathers We're, the money lenders and mas
| ters Of the country, would there not be
| another monopoly to fight, agricultural, the
| farmers turning plutocratS? Human nature
| is very human, and about the same in in
| centives, irrespective of avoca ton. "A
| change of position changes nothing essen
! tally nor does it essentially involve i'm
| proved social conditions in the great mass
| AS progressive thinkers and workers fol-
| the general good, it becomes us then, to
formulate political policy fitted exactly
| to the stuat ton, with a view to forestal
| the possibility of new monopolies for other
| generations to fight and sorrow over. II
| the battle ragged against the monopolies is
| keyed to no higher consideration than tc
| pull down the class in power and substi
| tute the class now out of power, what is
| the gain of it all, and where is the ad
| vance?
| Monopoly. with special legislation to for
| tify it, is the incident of competition. Is il
! not true in great business interests, Wher
| one corporation tries to undermine another
| by price reduction, that from necessity they
| settle the quarrel by combination to contro
| price for mutual advantage? Here is borr
| the trust, sequential outgrowth of the
| competitive system The trust has demon
| strated the law Of industrial economy fol-
| the best profit; hence. all things on this
| trend and no legislation is able to upset it
| Men might as well attempt to down it as t.
| hold the ocean tide by edict. In SONS
| form, either limited extended, the trus
| has come to stay. 1t has to be so in the
| very order of events The steam engine
| involved the railroads and myriads of Other
| great enterprises identified with the genera
| interests. Concentrated capital Awas neces
| sary to construct and operate the multi
| form machinery. Government has had tt
| protect and fortify the ventures; monopo
| lies cropped out. Who begat the mighty
| autocrat? ASK the fiat of evolutional law
| In the spread-out of the monopoistic policy
| keyed to and intensified by speculation
| the logical sequence of competition-every
| thing has been seized to minister unto the
| trust-the money, the SOIL the mine, the
| forest the commerce. the arts, the inven
| tons; and new form of slavery has
| thence evolved-men, women and children
| irrespective of race lines, subordinated tc
| "the powers that be-" And now the mighty
| problem comes up for solution, what shall
| we do to install equal justice between labor
and capital?
| A monopolys special privilege legally
| guaranteed to the few, denying like priv
| ilege to the many When the many OIL
| great whole are allowed equality of priv
| ieges, what was a monopoly ceases ther
| to be monopoly.
| On the data of evolutonal facts before u:
| it is obvious that the people must seize al
| the natural monopoieS and thus neutraliZt
| the present injustice of special privilege
| under the laws. In other words, the PEG
pie, through their representatives must ex
tend the right of privilege to its utmos
completion, till not a man, woman or chile
| in all our country is denied it's benefit by
| receiving compensation according to earn
| ings. There is now other alternative
| left the people. The monopolies must bt
| transferred to the people. 1t may take
| revolution to achieve it. Let us solve the
| problem peacefully if possible, but move
| f1,o no ~,
| railroads. the telegraphS and all other
| natural monopoes are reegated to the
| people for the people.
| J. O. BARRETT.