Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-05-04

BYRON W. HOLT.
cial privileges are 'given away" to the
corporation that knows best how to
grease Legislative machinery While
monopoly profits and prices are possible
politicians will be corrupt.
Neither the Australian ballot system,
proportional representation, the initia-
tive and referendum nor any other meth
cd Of voting or legislating will make
politics pure while present monopoly
conditions exist Even when we succeed
i'll making laws that pinch or threaten
to pinch trusts they are defied and bro
ken. Our last census is grossly defective
because many trusts made false returns
or, like the Sugar trust, openly defied
all census laws and made no returns
whatever. Our most dangerous anar-
chists are our monopolists,
Because of monopoly profits and low
wages our laborers are unable to buy
back as consumers anything like the
whole of what they produce, therefore
both the labor market and the goods
market are constantly congested. When
this congestion is at its worst, we have
panics. You can't have exorbitant mo-
nopoly prices and profits without pau
pers and panics We can get rid of one
only by getting rid of the other.
Before discussing the remedies for
trusts we will notice that the evils of
trusts grow out of monopolies and that
monopolies rest upon three kinds of
laws:
/. Patents, copyrights, franchise
grants, etc.
2. Tariff and other trade restricting
legislation.
3. Legislation permitting private
ownership of the opportunities to pro-
duction.
Most of the present tried or proposed
remedies for trusts consist of federal
and state antitrust laws and interstate
commerce acts In spite Of the fact that
hundreds of trusts are openly and con-
stantly defying these laws and that no
trust of importance has lost its grip or
changed anything except its location or
form because of any decision of any
court, the people still seem to think
that a government fiat, if made strong
enough, could kill all trusts. 1t would
be pity to destroy them outright and
to lose their power for good, and it is
well that we cannot do So They are a
development of modern industry and
they are here to stay
Many Of our eminent lawyers and
judges expect no beneficial results from
antitrust legislation. Some think 1t both
unconstitutional and harmful because
it is governmental interference with the
right Of private contract and business
1t Is favored by politicians because it
serves to still for time the clamor Of
the plundered people.
We cannot hope to get rid of the evils
of trusts until we somehow change rad
ically that legislation which makes such
a fertile soil for the roots of monopoly
Savages have no trouble with trusts;
neither would anarchists if they could
realize their ideal and abolish all law
But the most of us are unwilling to be-
come either savages or anarchists to get
rid Of the evils Of trusts, great as they
are. Socialists offer us q heroic remedy
They propose to gobble up all trusts,
present and prospective, into one grand
governmental trust or monopoly. AS we
would all be stockholders in this great
trust, as well as consumers of its prod
ucts, we would not mind being robbed,
for we would then get our share of the
plunder. Socialists and nationalists
therefore hail with delight the forma-
tion Of every great trust. They think it
hastens the day of governmental owner
ship Of all capital and land. Socialism
is possible remedy, for it proposes to
go to the root of the evil. 1t sees no 9TH
er way Of securing even an approxima-