The herald., 1896-12-13
PRESIDENT CLEVELHNDS Legacy
TO PRESIDEhT-ELECT M'KlhLEY
BY JAMES y. CLARK

the primary principle involved cannot
be destroyed by legislation, and that the
only ultimate remedy must be found,
not in q return to obsolete competitive
methods, but in an enlargement of the
scope and horizon of the combination
idea, through public ownership and CO.
operation. And this idea should not be
shocking to those who are striving for
municipal ownership of city water plants
and other utilities. Ambrose Bierce--
whose reform spirit, like that of Col.
| Robert G. Ingersoll. shows its teeth and
barks savagely, but never bites-has
lately returned from his Washington
campaign against Huntington to in
form US that in that city, the headquar-
ters Of corrupt lobbies, there is a strong
feeling against the government foreclos
ure and ownership of the road" which
means that the road will ultimately fore
close on the government. But that is
not strange. The men who oppose gov
ernment foreclosure and possession are
we'll aware that the universal reign Of
railroad monopoly and extortion would
begin to end from the very moment of
Huntington's dethronement, and this
would take great national monopolies out
Of politics and set them to work in the
public service.
And why not?
In our treatment Of the trust, we must
not forget that 1t was a necessity, that
its father was the despair of competi-
tive trade and it's mother the very nat
ural and righteous effort to conserve hu-
man energy in the production and dis
tribution of commodities through the
simple principle Of intelligent combina-
tion-an object lesson that could only,
at the time. have come through private
capital and foresight on the part of the
which have since proceeded all the Ills
so clearly stated by Mr. Cleveland, and
which must needs prevail and increase
under private rule, is quite another thing,
and one that can only be permanently
remedied. not by breaking up the trust
and returning to competition" as a
great many thoughtless and unwise and
few wise people vainly imagine can
be successfully done by legislation, but
by taking in the public for partner.
Why and how?
Because the trust grew out of the
constantly growing and alarming mad
equacy Of competitive methods in the
transaction of the worlds business, pre-
cisely as the trust itself has, in time,
proved itself unequal to just and sat
isfactory performance of the same task
Thus, both competition and private COM
bination have alike been weighed in the
balance of public necessity and occasion
and found wanting. One was the natur-
al pioneer phase, and the other an inter
medfate-not final-phase of Industrial
evolution. The beneficiaries Of the trust
are mistaken when they attempt to con-
vert an incidental phase into a finality
There is no power to prevent the COM
bination principle from fulfilling its
highest ideal, which is the greatest good
to the greatest number
Nothing Is more certain that that our
highest ideals-if logical-will sooner or
later be realized. How soon, of course
depends largely upon conditions and
the applications of means to ends.
The greatest thinkers and students
have long held that our present expir-
ing competitive medley must finally
be superseded by intelligent, general CO.
operation and fraternalism. This belief
has been persistently gaining strength
and force among the masses until today
1t fills the mind and stirs the heart of the
civilized world as never before.
The sentiment. like the floods pour
ing down from the clouds and the water
sheds. Is already surging around us, and
only needs proper irrigating system
| through which it may find rational and
practical application. All progress is
reached through two seemingly contin-
gent forces, mainly the effort at perfec.
tion on the part Of the more humane and
aspiring, and the virtue of necessity on
the part of the more selfish, who at last
! accept the situation as the only road to
safety.
There are hundreds of thousands of
business men trembling today on the
brink of ruination that by competitive
rustic and scramble and the invasion of
the combine and the department store"
who would gladly vote for. co operation.
as they would for a national bankrupt
act. And this state of things is not d.
minishing, but increasing. In the mean
time the trust-as rule-knows no such
thing as failure" for it controls out
put, price and supply. and uses its con-
troll for private gain and for "all the
trafnc will bear" Even az long ago as
January 10. 1e7s. the New York Tribune