Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-01-20
/ worn Subject ., Renewed Interest.

!
ganixasions on she big scale and scope
supposed to be adequate for reSu1atlhs
production. have for years been sub
| ject for discussion. one yet Iar from
being exhausted. Renewed interest
, has been lent to this discussion recent
Inv. owing to the fresh impetus That
! improved business conditions nave
given to this along with other enter
priscs Daily some detail respecting
trust already formed or proJected
meets the eye of the newspaper reader.
The columns of those journals especial
~ dovotaa 10 news of the business
world are teeming with this sort OF In
formation. and one cannot avoid the
conclusion that in some instances,
sugar refining for instance, the point
has been reached where individual
:! competition has given place TO trust
composition: also 1t is noticeable that
| the effect is far more disturbing to
| general business conditions than in
dividual competition could possibly be,
while there remains the assurance that
when the battle between the combines
| is ended the public will have to reim-
burse the rafneries for any cutting OF
prices which may have been resorted
to while the contest was being waged.
OF .his particular instance the New
York Commercial of the 10th inst. says:
Probably the commodity which Is
handled today by the grocery trade,
with the ieas, satisfactory results, is
sugar. That market is unsettled,
solely because Of the contention for
supremacy unons the refiners. With
an infinitely larger productive capacity
! than our consumption demands. this
must continue to exist until one or the
other of the opposing interests has
been forced 70 the wall"
In another column the Commercial
answers several questions asked by Il
| subscriber promising, however, its re-
ply with the confession that but a par
tial and imperfect one is possible. And
| 1t Is worthy Of note here that the more
thoughtful and unprejudiced the con-
| sidenation OF this growing question. the
less confidence is expressed in any
| probable solution or possible remedy.
OF course the political free trader Il
| always ready TO say that protection
testers the trusts, but is unable 10 deny
that they flourish i'm free trade Eng
lard. and he must know. even il he
thinks others do not, that were the
tariff barriers taken down Il trust
which could employ cheap foreign
labor would be at liberty to enjoy
monopoly now enjoyed 10y trusts which
are now colnpelleu to employ American
labor. gin
But to refer back to the CONNER
calls answer: In the first place. the
consolidation alluded TO is evidently a
natural evolution in productive and
distributive processes, at the bottom
of which. of course. lies the all-power-
| full instinct of self-preservation. 1t is
merely result of the competition
which naturally flows from the desire
to take advantage of the best oppor-
| tunity presented for profitable employ
| ment, and which requires that each
competitor in the market for his
product should produce it as cheaply
| and dispose of it as dearly as possible.
| The question of our correspondent
then. can be asked in another form,
viz: Will this instinct of seif-preser-
| walton result finally in a policy Of self
| destruction? For. according 10 his
view, the process of consolidation 10
| which he refers must result on the one
| hand in destroying the power to con-
sumo of a very large majority of pres
| ent consumers. whose demand for
goods must measure the profits and SO
| the lives of these great corporations:
| and on the other hand, result in vast
monopolies the further effect of which
| will be to wiring prices from the con-
sumers of their products. eXorbitant
and entirely unwarranted by their cost,
| and SO again destructive of conSump-
| tion.
| I'VE think that, in his apprehension
| for the future, our correspondent does
not give enough value to the facial
which, however, he hints in his letter
| that capital has not only to deal with
| the consumer, but with the producer
| also, and that the very condition 10
which he refers, viz, the enormous de-
velopment of productive power in our
country, must be accompanied by the
| accumulation of corresponding
| wealth, which is merely capital. A
! popularity of capital is that it must
! invest or perish. Right here again the
old instinct Of self-preservation must
get in it's work, and this accommodating
capital must find something to do; and
who ever heard of capital being able
| to do anything at all in the direction
| of self-preServation without dividing
it's gains with labor? And this gives
rise ITO the query, VIII not this new
capital seeking Investment always be
great enough to maintain, in its contest
with old capital, the relative position
of labor?
| "Of course, if American capital could
draw upon the unemployed labor of
the entire world for its assistance, nn1
could either, invest right here and en-
ploy American workmcn, or. IL Ameri
can was more expensive ahan foreign
labor, could go abroad. set up its plants