Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-03-07

ridden into power upon wave OF
competition, but by means of legalized
privileges. Make competition free to-
day, and trusts would begin to disin-
tegrate tomorrow"
With all due Difference to Mr.. Posts
splendid abilities, 1 must yet take is
sue with him. In the inception, Or be-
ginning, of them, what Mr.. Post calls
"legalized privileges" were not priv
ileges at all, in the sense that none
but a privileged class could become
the recipient of their benefits. The
trusts have not Constructed competi-
ton but, driven to sore straits by
competition, have abolished the CAPT.
talistic side of it and established a
socialism of cooperative capital. Cap
italists engaged in the several lines of
production have simply pooled their
issues and refuse to compete with
each other.
Let us briefly examine the position
held by Mr.. Post and see if it is not
fallacious: In the early Cos, during
and after the civil war, when manu-
featuring in the United States was in
it's infancy and the protective tariff
was established, tariff protection was
in no wise special privilege, because
any man, or set of men, could engage
in manufacturing, if they wished to,
with the result that n great multitude
did so engage and invest their capt.
tai in more or less comprehensive and
costly manufacturing plants" No
one was barred, but the blessings CT
protection were free to all alike.
With the vast increase in the produc
tive power of improved machinery,
these plants soon became able to
supply the wants of the American
people two or three times over and
manufacturers spent $75,000,000 an
nually in drummers' salaries and eX-
penses and enormous sums in adver-
Using, lost hundreds of millions in
bad debts and were, most of them,
upon the verge of bankruptcy al all
times. This was the result of compe-
tition for the domestic or home mar
ket and in this eliminating stage
goods were sold far below the price
made possible by the tariff, because
competition was so fierce that prices
were cut to the point of bare survival
of the competing plants.
1t was at this stage and under
these conditions that the trust was
evolved. Quoting Mr.. Casson again:
1.-The trust-builder takes hold of q
thousand shaky, feeble concerns,
and transforms them into one
large. solid, thoroughly organ
lied industry which has complete
control of it's output and its profits.
He is the real empire builder and
civilizer of modern times. He has
founded business upon rock. He
has shown us that organization is the
secret of confidence and security.
Such is the educational work which
has been done by monopolies. They
have transformed business from a lot
terry into a science, and have shown us
a way whereby bankruptcy, poverty
and overwork can be made as rare as
smallpox and cholera"
But this transformation has not re-
duced, but has increased the produc-
tive capacity of the amalgamated
plants. Indeed, the key note of the
republican defense of it's Philippine
policy is the excess above domestic
requirements of the productive ca
pacity of our industrial corporations
AS epitomized in the American, the
republican argument runs thusly:
The productive power of our peo-
pie has outrun their consuming ca
pacity; we must find new and foreign
markets as an outlet for this produc-
tive power or else we must suffer in
dustrial stagnation, must witness idle
looms, idle factories, unemployed
hands. And the Philippines, as open
ing the door to such markets, we
must seize and hold
Most decidedly "co,nnetition has
culminated'' in the trusts.
And in like manner there was
evolved the railroad pool. The funda.
mental and primary mistake of grant
ing to private corporations the privi
lege of owning and operating the ma
tions rail highways, was not in the
interest of any special class. Anyone
could and can build railroad, so fan
as the legal privilege was and is con
cerned. The result is that thousand.
of miles of useless parallel and com
petlng roads were built, which neces
STATED the custom of giving rebate:
and special rates to obtain bushes:
and caused the evolution of the rail
road pool for division of earnings ant
the stoppage of granting rebates, etc
And, yet, very large percentage O.
the nations railroad mileage was al
ways in the hands of receivers. AND
now the railroad corporations are ask
ing congress to pass law legaliZins
pooling to avoid the evils of competi
ton and to stop the practice of Civ
ing rebates by removing the incentive
for so doing. Thus the railroad cor
porations are asking the law to d,
for them what the industrial corpora
tions have done for themselves: Saw,
them from bankruptcy by granting
them legal authority to form trust
But they are gradually forming /;
, railroad combine, anyhow, law or NJ
law. The trusts, however, do not an,
longer need any rebates as agains
competitors and would just as sool
the government owned the railroad
as any other way. Under government
ownership the trusts would get low
freight rates and it is not likely tn,
government would give rebates t.