The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-26
A LARGE ATTENDANCE Is NOW AS
sURED AT THE CHICAGO
CONFERENCE
MANY GOVERNORS COMING
NORTHWEST WILL BE WELL REP
RESENTED AMONG THE EXEC
UTIVES IN ATTENDANCE
MR.. MORTON GIVES HIS VIEWS

NOT beheVe NOAh-
binatiOns Are Beyond the Laws
of Competition or That LegislR-
tiOn Can Correct the Evils of the
Present Social System.
CHICAGO, June 25.-Secretary Early, of
the Civic Federation OF Chicago, under
whose auspices conference will be held
In Chicago, Sept. 1916, to consider trusts
ard combinations, and legislation for their
control, has received hundreds of letters
from prominent men all over the coun-
try accepting Invitations to be present at
the meeting. Among the executives of
states who have signified their intention
of attending the conference in person or
who will be represented are: Pingree, of
Michigan; Roosevelt of New York; Stan
ley, of Kansas; Sayers, of Texas; Mount,
Gf Indiana; Fancher, of North Dakota;
Thomas, of Colorado; Tanner. of Illinois;
McLaurin, of Mississippi; Mcmillan, Of
Tenne ssee; Poynter, of Nebraska, and
Lee of South Dakota.
John B. Clark. professor of political
economy, Cornell. and the expert on trusts
and combinations for the industrial COM
Irission; P. E. Dove, president of the
Commercial Travellers National league;
Francis B. Thurber president of the Ma
tional Exporters association; Max Adler,
president of the board of trade, New.
Haven, Conn; Henry @. Adams, statisti-
clan of the interstate commerce commits
sion; members Of the Interstate commerce
commission; members of the industrial
the Northwestern Travelling Mems asso-
citation; James O'Donnell, president of the
International Association of Machinists,
and Attorney Generals Davies, of New
York; Rucker, of South Carolina; Hicks,
of Wisconsin; Monnett, of Ohio Doug
las, of Minnesota, and -Romley, of Iowa,
have also promised to be present.
TRUSTS DEFENDED.
In acknowledging the receipt of an in
vitGtion to attend, ex-Secretary of Agri-
culture ]. Sterling Morton, of Nebra ska
says: TRUSTS which are overcapitalized
are born of the Vaccinations of shallow
and impractical men. They will fail
and no one be harmed except those whose
credulity led them to invest in their Sc.
culitles.
There is much misrepresentation as to
incorporated capital in the United States
Oratorical vagueists have endeavored to
make common people believe that incor-
pora atiOns are not subject to economic
laws of competition, and that the relation
of supply to demand is not the sole regu-
lator of values The fact, however, re-
mains, that money invested in manufac-
tories or in railroads belonging to corpo-
rations is no stronger, no better and no
more exempt from the operation of COM
mercial laws than the money which is
owned by individuals. There need be, in
my Judgment, no apprehension as to the
trusts crushing out all competition. With
the exception of the oil trust and tho
sugar trust, failure among trusts has been
universal. The whisky trust, the tobacco
trust and all the other trusts of any i'm
portance up to date, except those which
have been formed very recently, have
beer complete failures. These failures
lave come, firstly, from overcapitaliza-
ton; and, secondly, from mismanage-
ment.
Intelligent competition can enter the
field against any trust on earth except
one which has a natural monopoly-by
this I mean one which, like the Stand
ard OIL company owns the only oil pro-
ducing lands in the country, and success
fully puts its products upon the market
with the sympathy of the consumer all
on its side. Outside of the trusts CO.
partnerships and stock companies NAV
be formed with capital, energy and abil-
ity to successfully take the market
against any and all trust products, ex-
cept those which are the result of nat
ural monopoly.
What can be accomplished by legisla-
ton or regulatory laws 1 cannot see nor
do I look to such enactments for rem
edy of any evils that may grow out of
trusts OF course 1t is fashionable, it is
epidemic to denounce all large aggrega-
tions of capital trusts This mania
will at last exhaust itself and the coun-
try will find that those who have been
damaged by trusts were those who
bought their securities for more ,han
they were WORTH
LIGHT WANTED.
DIR. Lyman Abbott, of New York. saws.
''I think what we most need on the sub-
3ect of industrial, commercial, labor and
transportation combinations is just what
your I0lteT lIUlcdleS InlS meeting will
endeavor to secure, light, not heat. What
we need to understand and what onIy ex-
perience can teach us is the relation be-
tween competition and combination, the
one the centrifugal the other the CEN
tripetal force of society. He who be-
heves only in combination will logically
be led to socialism: he who believes only
In competition will logically be led to nihfI-
ism. Neither of these results can possibiX
furnish the solution of the problems
which now confront us. We must learn
how to secure the advantages of COM
bination without destroying the individ-
ual; to maintain brotherhood in prac-
teal forms without sinking, obscurine
belittling personality
Hundreds Of other letters have been
received, the writer's in nearly every
case expressing sympathy with the pur-
poses of the conference
Attorney General Monnett, of Ohio.
fears he may not be able to be present
on account of having to attend tie Ohio
courts, but he says he will try to be
present and participate, ''in such way
as 1 may be able along the lines that 7
am especially interested in
Frank rdn