The herald., 1896-11-18
SSsS%SSSSSSSSSSSS]SSSS$sSs
!: WEALTH VS.. COMMONWEALTH

AS mucn an epOcn -maklHS poOk rs
Uncle Toms Cabin" is the comment Of
Edward Everett Hale on wealth
Against Commonwealth" from the press
OF Harper Brothers, by Henry Demarest
Lloyd. The Introductory chapter of the
book indicates the scope and style Of
the work, and is SO striking and forceful
that readers of The Herald will thank
us for the following excerpt:
Nature is rich; but everywhere man,
the heir of nature, is poor. Never in this
happy country or elsewhere-except in
the Land of Miracle, where they did
all eat and We're filled"-has there been
enough of anything for the people.
| Never since time began have all the sons
and daughters of men been all warm,
and all filed, and all shod and rooted.
Never yet have all the virgins, wise or
foolish, been able To ill their lamps with
oil.
The world, enriched by thousands CT
| generations of toilers and thinkers, has
reached fertility which can give every
| human being a plenty undreamed II
| even in the Utopias. But between this
plenty ripening on the boughs of our
civilization and the people hungering
for it step the "cornerers,' the syndi-
| Gates, trusts, combinations, with the cry
| of "overproduction"- much of every
thing. Holding back the riches of earth,
sea, and sky from their fellows who
famish and freeze in the dark, they de-
| clare to them that there is too much light
| and warmth and food. They assert the
right for their private profit, to regu-
| late the consumption by the people CT
| the neceSsaries of life, and to control pro-
duction, not by the needs of humanity,
| but by the desires of few for dividends.
| The coal syndicate thinks there Is too
| much coal. There is too much iron, too
| much lumber, too much fiour-fOr this
| or that syndicate.
| The majority have never been able to
buy enough of anything; but this minor
| ity have too much of everything to
| sell.
Liberty produces wealth, and wealth
| destroys liberty. 1.-The splendid empire
of Charles "" says Motley. was erect
| ed upon the grave of liberty" Our big
nesses-cities, factories, monopolies,
fortunes. which are our empires, are the
! obesities of an age gluttonous beyond
its power of digestion. Mankind are
crowding upon each other in the centers,
and struggling to keep each other out
| of the feast set by the new sciences
and the new fellowships. Our size has
| got beyond both our science and our con-
science. The vision of the railroad
| stockholder is not far-sighted enough to
see into the office of the general mana
| SCI, tibc pcOple CdHNOL reach across even
| a ward of a city to rule their rulers; cap
| tains of industry "do not know" whether
the men in the ranks are dying from lack
| of food and shelter; we cannot clean our
cities nor our politics; the locomotive has;
more man power than all the ballot
boxes, and mill wheels wear out the
hearts of workers unable to keep up
beating time to their whirl. If mankind
had gone on pursuing the ideals of the
fghter the time would necessarily
have come when there would have been
only few, then only one. and then none
the world of livelihoods. Our ideals of
livelihood are ideals Of mutual
| deglutition. We are rapidly reach
Ing the stage where in each prov
| ince only a few are left; that is the key
to our times. Beyond the deep is an
phase in the evolution of Industrial
Caesars, and these Caesars will be of a
| new type-corporate Caesars.
For those who like the perpetual mo-
tion of a debate in which neither of
| the disputants is looking at the same side
4 OF the shield, there are infinite satis-
| factions in the current controversy as
to whether there is any such thing AS
monopoly" There are none" says
one side. They are LEGION" says the
other. "The idea that there can be
such thing is absurd" says one, who
with half dozen associates controls the
source, the price, the quality the guam
| tity Of nine-tenths of a great necessary
of life But "There will soon be a trust
for every production, and a master to fix
the price for every necessity Of life,"
said the senator who framed the United
States antitrust law. This difference
| as to facts is due to a difference in the
| definitions through which the facts are
regarded Those who say there are
none" hold with the attorney general Of
the United States and the decision he
quotes from the highest federal court
which had then passed on this questions
| that no one has a monopoly unless there
| is a disability" or restriction imposed
by law on all who would compete. A
| syndicate that had succeeded in bot
| tling for sale all the air of the earth
| would not have monopoly in this view,
unless there were on the statute books
law forbidding every one else from
selling air. No others could get air to
sell; the people could not get air to
breat the, but there would be no monop-
oily because there is no legal restric-
ton" on breathing or selling the atmos-
| phere.
| Excepting in the manufacture of pos
I tage stamps, gold dollars, and q few
other cases of legal restriction" there
are no monopolies according to this def
milton. 1t excludes the whole body OF
| facts which the people include in their
definition. and dismisses great public
| question by mere play on words. The
| other side of the shield was described
by Judge Barrett of the supreme court
Of New York. A monopoly he declared
to be "any combination, the tendency of
which is to prevent competition in it's
broad and general sense, and to control
| and thus at will enhance prices to the
detriment of the public. Nor need
it be permanent or complete. 1t is
enough that 1t may be even temporarily
and partially successful. The question
in the end is. Does it inevitably tend to
public injury-"+*
Those who insist that "there are none"
| are the fortunate ones who came up to
the shield on it's golden side. But COM
| mon usage agrees with the language
of Judge Barrett, because it exactly fits
a fact which presses on common peo-
pie heavily, and will grow heavier be-
fore 1t grows lighter
The committee of congress investigat-
ing trusts in 1889 did not report any list
of these combinations to control mar
kets, "for the reason that new ones are
constantly forming, and the old ones are
constantly extending their relations SO
as to cover new branches of the business
and invade new territories"
1t is true that such list, like die
tionary, would begin to be wrong at the
moment 1t began to appear. But though
only an instantaneous photograph of the
whirlwind, 1t would give an idea, to be
gained in no other waV Of mOvemort