The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-09-29
Interest is paid upon bonds which has

Interest is paid upon bonds which has
never been earned, and the public be-
lieves them solvent; it pays it's fixed
charges and the public buys the stock,
even though no dividends have been
paid, believing that dividends are soon
to be pail because the fixed charges
are met; interest is paid on the pre-
ferred stock which never has been
earned in order ,Eat the common stock
may be foated. But when the col
lapse comes, when the ruin is COM
plete, in nine cases out of ten the en-
gineers Of this ruin are appointed the
receivers by the courts in order 10 con-
duct the plan of reorganization.
mo corporation has a right to Sc
crecy in the discharge of its duties.
whenever any person seeks TO lure
you up dark alley way on the pre-
tense that he is going to serve you, do
not parley with him moment; he's .
confidence man. Call policeman, if
you want to save your property OF
your character. No corporation anX-
ious to perform honest services to the
public and it's stockholders will seek
secrecy or will insist upon it.
Secrecy Cloaks Fraud.
Remember that this secrecy is not
invoked by corporate members against
the public any more than it is against
their own stockholders. 1t is the cloak
behind which all these frauds are per-
petrated. The payment of interest,
the false pretense of paying dividends
which have not been earned false pre-
lenses about earnings, false pretenses
made up of false bookkeeping, all
these are possible while the managers
of q corporation have the right to
close their offices in the face of their
own shareholders and say that this is
a matter which concerns only the man
agement.
No American Monopoly.
81 do not believe that there is any
single industry existing in this coun-
try to-day that is a monopoly in the
sense in which that word can be used.
1 believe the Standard Oil company,
which is generally considered the lead
ing monopoly, supplies about 62 per
cent of the entire product of all the
country. But suppose better word
would be dominating industrial en-
terprise-one that dominates the mar
-.et that leads, not that has the largest
measure of the total. do not object
even if you call the institution that
gives me my clothes the cheapest,
even if you call it monopoly. will
not quarrel with the words. l do not
care which term you use as much as /
do about the clothes. But it must be
borne in mind that the gentlemen who
object to this form Of domination or
monopoly-call it what you wilton
the ground that it destroys competi-
ton are wholly illogical.
Doesn't Destroy Competition.
sit does not destroy competition. 1t
is the very product of competition.
Ladies and gentlemen, you canOt have
competition without competitors, and
if you have competitors one must pre-
vail. If you do not allow the man who
prevails in the competition the fruit of
his victory he will not compete, and
nobody else will, and then you will
have no competition. The competition
of men in any department of human
endeavor, if it be absolutely free, al
ways develops excellence, and excel
lence is monopoly. 1t would not be
excellence if it wasn't. You would
surely not call that excellence which
is shared by many. Now, if any num-
Der of persons competing to supply me
with clothes and with shoes and with
food and with shelter have among
them one standing pre-eminently able
to render me the best service of all, he
does not suppress competition; he is the
competitor; he is the successful COM
petitor, and if you do not allow him
the fruits of his success you destroy
competition.
Lowest Price Dominates.
"He who sells cheapest must always
dominate the market, for in economics
the domination of the cheapest is
the survival of the fttest. Now, l
have heard it said as an objection to
this that it throws-that the success
full industry by serving me so well
throws the men who cannot sarve me
so well out of employment. Well,
might say in the first place that l do
not believe it. These great industrial
trusts do not believe have thrown
anybody out of employment who de-
serves employment. To begin with,
the man who says that any combina-
ton throws him out of employment
because he cannot compete with it ad-
mits that somebody else can do his job
better than he can, and if so, he ought
to give it up. But let us consider for
Just one moment what the acts of
history show. There have been two or
three great industrial changes, and,
ladies and gentlemen, my firm belief
is that period of industrial change is
a period Of apprehensions, but the ap-
prehensions are never realized.
Law Governing Wages.
''If you will bear with me for mo-
ment and consider the law governing
wages you will find that the one thing
which affects the rate of laborers'
wages is the volume of his product,
and no agreement between him and
his employer can enable the employer
TO pay more Tor the vafue OF his Pro-
duct. You will see in this sense that
it is impossible to maintain for a mo-
ment the idea So generally felt that
wages are a species of aims, that good
employers pay higher wages and bad
employers pay poor wages. Recurring
to the example of the chair, it is per-
fectly plain that / cannot give the la
borer any more than his share of that
product, and if l bring charity into the
matter, why, in a short time will be
bankrupt and will not be able to pay
him anything at all. His compensa-
ton or his rate of wages depends
very much not on the employers phi
lanthropy-it depends upon his own
right arm and his own productive