The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-24

Any eursory review of the rise and
fall, in recent years, of these various
combinations of men in trade, formed
to avoid the competition that forces
prices down to their normal level, re-
veaIs the inherent weakness of even
the strongest and most advantage
ously circumstanced of them, and
should have a SOLDERING effect upon
those who would, in spite of the lessons
taught in the school for fools, rush
into ventures where no permanent sue
cess has been achieved and where the
wrecks vastly outnumber those whose
battered hulls and tattered sails be-
token their hazardous voyages. Earli-
est in the field were the railway pools
combinations, ''gentlemens agree
ments," and other devices by which the
competition that threatened rates and
dividends might be paralyzed. No field
for such efforts was more promising
The enormous capital required to con-
struct competitive lines, the practical
monopoly each road had within it's ter
ritory, the facility for arrangements fer
mutual benefit, seemed to afford an
armor that would be competition
proof. And yet all such combinations
have been as ephermeraI as the midges
of summer evening
Where some such natural opportu-
nifty as the fields of anthracite coal or
those Of petroleum gave, in their linn
itations, chance for monopoIization that
would throttle competition, the posi-
bic has not been attained or attaina-
BILE The Standard Oil trust early
learned that there were limits that it
must respect, and the coal barons of
pennsylvania are learning this winter.
as they have been taught in the past.
that their product is not an indispensa-
BILE necessity like air or water. Substi-
tutes for either have come forward to
relieve oppression and to teach the
would-be oppressors that the law of
competition is a thing they must
have due respect for. Following these.
melted by their example and unde-
TERED by their experience, came the
whole covey of those birds of i'll omen
called or miscaIled the 'IndustriaIs."
One after another, during the past
twenty years Of speculative and Iegis-
3 latlVe business saturnalia we have
seen them blown and swell and glitter
with their rainbow hues, and collapse,
bringing ruin to thousands who, al
Iured by their gorgeousness, sought to
grasp them as a short cut to wealth.
Steel pools have succeeded each other.
each successor gathering the fragments
of it's predecessors for material for re-
building. Iron masters have blown
their bubbles. Cordage f1ourished for
awhile only to find that its stoutest
rope was made with strands Of sand.
Steel rails and steel billets have not
had tensile strength enough to with
stand the pull and push of competitive
forces, and recent indications are that
glass is quite as brittle in trade as in
use The nail trust has not yet found
nails sufficiently strong with which to
fasten combination so that compe-
tition cannot draw them and let the
structure fall to pieces
One runs the eye over the diagrams
whereon price lines run across the
page through the transverse lines indi-
eating the successive years, and finds
there proof how futile are the efforts
of all these trusts to attain the sole
object Of their formation, increase or
steadiness Of price. Here and there are
sharp rises where a fresh grip has been
obtained through, usually, some use of
governments taxing power, only to be
followed by as sharp a descent to still
lower line. while through no two sue
cessive years has a steadiness OF price
been maintained. AS 1.-The stars in their
courses fought against Sisera," so the
forces of nature, working through the
ordinary and universal motives of men
fight for the freeing OF competition.