The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-16

y
share, and any member of the pubic
becomes member and an owner of that
stock and shareholder in that corpora
ton he should have the right to examine
thoSe DOCKS whenever he chooses. And
that Is the law today If the courts
would e.q enforce It. (Applause)
should be compelled to file with the sec
rotary of state. when 1t organizes, a
statement OF property. and then let the
to make Every year it should report
to some competent authority full
statement sta Of its business. That is the
ls always evaded. The reports are
misleading where they are not incom,
Pre inea 10 Let these reports be. fair,
and then finally extend the powers of
| your superintendent of insurance and
banking to all corporations, and let
these the; reports be verified and then you
| Will nave honest management of corpor-
auonS, ana promise you that this pub
lie distrust and !shatred of corporate en-
titles will disappear from the minds of
nberty-lOVlng people who are but seek
Ing justice even by their prejudice (Ap-
| plause.)
DEPARTMENT. STORES.
Now let us see what the objection to
that 49, We are told that it defeats COM
petition; but, my friends that is an OBJ
Vious mistake. l must say, to begin with.
that any industrial organization that
cheapens to me the cost OF something I
possibly bring myself to quarrel with It,
Uaughter) l caniiot quarrel with it
even If you call It a monopoly. I must
make this confession frankly before this
gathering; that If I can go to a depart
ment store (Which I believe is form of
monopoly very offensive to some gentle
get a, good suit of clothes FOR $40, why
would rather go there and would go
there, than to a small tailor and pay him
Sl5o. This may be confession of total
orr r1,N AIn1 IO,,4
| hope. ladies and gentlemen, yeu will at
least give me. credit for the candor which
prompts it. 1 think l. said at the begin-
ming. that we must be very careful about
getting excited over the words.
Now there is a word fere which I
must use, and that is the word monopoly:
You will observe that l strictly avoided
the word trust, which was originally a
term of highly respectable significance
which seems to have fallen into disrepute
with its association with millionaires,
l have heard gentlemen here speak about
partial monopolies.' l confess l do not
understand What that means. A partial
monopoly, is very much to be like par
tial whole. 0.aughter) If we are to
have a monopoly [ can understand that
Qaughter); but [ cannot quite understand
remember that that is an economic sub
ject and combinations of capital have
given rise to an extraordinary number Of
phrases which, do not claim to under
stand. Monopoly is a word which suffers
from a very bad name, and deservedly
so. 1t has been ASSOCIATED for ages with
the very worst form of government prac-
tees. During the whole history of the
world until. may say, this generation.
monopoly epresented-ratEer 1t contro1l-
ed-the market by government patent.
1t means a license to some government
favorite to prey upon the necessities of
the community and the mention of the
word naturally awakens the Indignation
Of every liberty-loving freedman.
MONOPOLY DEFINED.
81 do not believe that there is any sin
gle industry existing in this country that
is monopoly in the sense in which that
word can be used. [ believe the Stand
ard Oil company, which is generally con-
sidered the leading monopoly, supplies
all consumers. But [ suppose a better
word would be a dominating industrial
enterprise-one that dominates the mar
ket, that leadsssone4 that has the largest
measure of the total. L do not object
even if you call the institution that gives
me my clothes the cheapest a monopoly.
| will not quarrel whit the words. I
do not care which term you use as much
as / do about the gclothes. daughter. }
But it must be borne in mind that. the
gentlemen who7S object 70 this form of
domination or monopoly-call it which
| you wilton the ground that 1t destroys
| competition, are wholly illogical 1t does
| not destroy competition. 1t Is the very
| product of competition.
Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot
| have competition without competitors,
| and if you have competitors, one must
| prevail If YOU do not allow the man
who prevails in the competition the full
| fruit of his victory he will not compete,
| and nobody else will, and then you will
have no competition daughter and ap-
| plauSe.) The competition of men in any
department of human endeavor, If 1t is
even absolutely free, always develops ex-
cellence and excellence is monopoly. 1t
would not be excellent if it was not. You
would surely not call that excellence
which is shared by many. Now, if any
number 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 COM
/ petitor; he is the successful competitor
and if you do not allow him the fruits of
his success you destroy competition
! daughter and applausa.) He who sells
cheapest must always dominate the mar
ket, for in economics the domination of
the cheapest is the survival of the fittest
Now | have heard it said as an objec-
ton to this that the successful industry,
who cannot serve me SO well out of en-
ploymcnt. Well. / might say in the
first place that I do not believe it. These
! great industrial trusts l do not believe
have thrown anybody out of employ
ment who deserves employment. To be-
gin with. the man VINO says that any
COMPUTATION tsroWS MN out OF employ
ment because he cannot compete with it
admits that somebody else can do his
job better than ne can, and if so he ought
to give it up. But let us consider for
tory show. There have been two or
three great industrial changes, and. la
dies and gentlemen. my firm belief is
that period of industrial change is a
period of apprehensions: but the appre,
tensions are never realized. We are
all a good deal like children If YOU
take 2 enid out of warm room ana
take it into another. even though you
put it on softer chair. the child will
scream and yell until he gets used to
and enjoys the change.
4ADVENT OF RAILROADS.
=, And so where society is passing
through an experience, and man thinks
ne IS beng thrown out of employment, he
deal more than he, will ever do after
he has actually gone through it. You
may remember-I don't suppose any OF
member. but all are familiar with the
history OF the development of the rail-
way. There Was not probably in the
history OF a man a danger that was
danger that the stage coach drivers cher,
ished when they believed that the con,
structlon OF railroad would throw
every one OF them out of empfoyment
Il think l could demonstrates here that
anything which .cheapens a commodifv
or article, and, therefore, increases the
volume, Of the commodity cannot throw
anybody out Of employment. AS soon
as the railroads become so far organ
lied that. the stage coach was driven
out, the demand for drivers and horses
TO distribute merchandise and passen.
gers from railway stations was more
than three times greater. than the de-
mand for drivers of stage coaches 1t ia
quite true that some stage coach drivers
who had been driving a four-fn-hand
from London to Brighton could not
prlng themselves down to the driving OF
merchandlse wagons and passengers, but
says L, are You going to block the
wheels Of progress for the benefit of the
stage coach driYers2, Il .a11elntar q IA ~.