The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-04-25
How to Destroy Monopoly

Editor Herald Il think the whole city
should feel grateful for the noble editorial
which appeared IN your columns few
days ago in which you expressed your in
dignaton at the Standard oil combine in
raising the price of Illuminating oil and
gasoline all over the United States, to the
further impoveIishment of millions of
miserable monopolyground human be-
ings who are living from hand to mouth
all over the country today. This COM
bine. and the raising OF the price OF oil
and gasoline so or 40 cents on fve-gal-
Ion can is simply another illustration to
the people of the country. showing them
how helpless they are to defend them
selves against the atrocities OF these mod
ern monopolies 1t will have its erect in
further j creasing the seething discon-
the length and breadth OF the whole
country.
The great question which every man
ana woman oustide of the pale of the ar
lstocracies should take to their hearts
is this: Is there any way possible OF
stepping this thing? Cannot this be
the end be? Where will it inevitably
lead? | wish | had the voice of the trum-
pet of the Angel Gabriel. to blow into
every human ear the great cogent truth
that it can be stopped! But how are we
going to stop it? BY adopting legislation
making void the contracts on which these
claring with furious figures of legal
phrase that a monopoly shall not exist?
Oh, no. We might as we'll fire an egg at
the side of an ironclad and exrect it to
explode in the hold of the vessel The
way to stop it is to inquire how it is that
list. What thing or things is it they. get
hold of and say to the people. You
must nav so and 500 and it is paid2
The thing they get hold of is land. They
go down and get hold of the sources of
production. and stit1e all of those sources
except those that they draw oil from
themselves and that's why the monopoly
exists. How has this rise in oil been
effected? By the wholesale purchase by
the Standard Oil company OF all the oil
producing lands. Once obtained. have
they continued to produce from these new
ly purchased wells?
No! They have shut those wells down!
Their purpose IN buying them was not to
produce from them, but to stop them from
producing because the production from
those wells has all along gone into the
market in competition with the Standard
oil, and as long as those wells continued
IN the hands OF competitors they would
keep the price Of oil down a d prevent
the Standard Oil Company from squeezing
the people.
Now, for the remedy How are we GO
ing to stop it? The answer is so simple,
it has been told so often, and yet people
do not see it nor understand it. The
remedy is simply by levying tax upon
all oil lands equal in amount to the an
nual rental of those lands. In other words
to make it improbable to hold these lands
out of use. This is done through the APP
plcation of the single tax. These monop-
olies must be made to pay for the natural
privileges they hold of the community
and to which every one has as much
natural right as they. They should not
be permitted to take possession OF the
surface of the earth and hold it out OF use
unless they pay to the people who live on
the earth through their common fund
the governments-such an annual sum as
is payment for that privilege. Compel
them to do this and that will be the end
of oil mon poly. and for that matter. if
YOU delve into it, of all other monopolies.
1t is the grab, the grip, that they have OH
the earth that enables them to lie monop-
olies; let them pay the full annual rental
of the land they hold to the communities
in which they are located and they will
let 20 their grip they Will either use these
lands or they will let some one else use
them and when they are used the oil will
find it's way to market and down will
come the price of oil.
JOHN E. BENNETT.