El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-10-19
Unrest of Labor a Safety Valve.

Unrest of labor in free country is
not dangerous phenomenon, says the
North American Review, but rather
safety valve. 1t must not be for
gotten, however, that education Of the
masses has created new wants, and
that these wants have grown faster
than the means of gratifying them.
T problem should be viewed from
| bOfh sides, and o 1ly what is reasonable
should obtain. Whenever unlimited
p }wer exists it is usually accompanied
| oy tyranny. whe; he + of Ia Dor or capital.
Toere are lab " trusts as well as cap
| ital trusts, AID in all the annals of com
| b nation there are no greater illuStra-
lions of tyranny than the attitude OF
some of the !aoor organic tions to-
| ward laborers. This, however, was
| the inevitab bic outcome of organization,
and of the great evolution which Is
now going on throughout the world, un-
der the operation of the great forces
that now control the world-steam,
| electricity and machinery. Under the
operation of ihese forces the world has
been growing richer. All the re-
sources of nature are being developed.
Capital has increas d faster than the
opportunities for it's profitable employ
ment, as is evidenced by the steadily
decreasing returns of capital, Or, IN
other words, rate of interest. For
capital would abrogate competition,
but experience has shown that instead
of abrOgating competition 1t has
elevated that force to higher plane
If combination Of capital in any line
temporarily eXacts a liberal profit,
capital Immediately flows into
that channel, another combination is
formed and competition ensues on &
scale and operates with an Intensity fat
beyond anything that is possible on {
mailer scale. resulting in the break
ing down of the com biuatiOn and the
! decline of profits to minimum. A
recent example of this is saen in the
com petition of two rival cigarette com
panies, where one even went so far a:
TO invoke the criminal machinery o
the courts to compel a division OF the
field of trade which the other occupied
: The only trusts which have succeeded
1 for any length of time have been those
which have been conducted on a far
sighted basis of moderate margins o.
profit, relying upon large turn over
and the economies resulting from thu
, command of large capital intelligeutlJ
administered. The truth of this is il
; Illustrated by innumerable failures in
trust organizations to control prices
recent illustrations of which are tn
). strawboard trust, the starch trust. tn
Z wire nail trust and the steel trust
d There are trusts sO-called in nearl,
: every branch of business, and there j
good and bad in all, but the good so fa
predominates that such aggregation
: of capital should be encouraged; &C
4 companied by safeguards agains
5 abuses. The only additional safe
1 guards needed are in behalf of stock
holders and investors, whose interest
), are often sacrificed through Jack O
publicity. So far as the. interest o
d consumers is concerned, it is ampl
protected now: first by competition
=, and second by the common law, which
if invoked, will nullify and contract i
real restraint of trade, and under eX
, listing statutes any unreasonable com
= bination is subject to indictment TO
: conspiracy.