Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-02-28
NO. SO

of the land. The end which is sought
to be attained by those who favor the
competitive system is the limitation
of the amount of capital and number
of plants an industrial corporation
may own and operate and the divi-
sion of the present huge concerns
into several smaller ones which shall
compete with each other. If this can
be accomplished by law, then it is
true that direct legislation will make
the laws desired more easy of enact
ment by the initiative of the people.
But can the end desired be attained by
legal enactment?
Now as to the government owner
ship and operation of the railroads OF
the nation. While there are a multi
plicity of good and valid reasons why
such reform is consummation de-
voutly to be prayed for and one that
would prove of inestimable benefit to
the people, the effect it would have
upon trusts is one of the least of all
these reasons. For instances: Before
the small coal miner can reap any
benefit from equal and exact privi-
leges and rates there must be found
some coal land that is not already the
property of some monopolistic cor
poration, while before small manu-
featuring concern can be benefited
| by an equality in the matter OF
freight rates it must first be able to
| produce its wares as cheaply as the
huge concern which has reduced the
| expense of production to minimum
and the work of distribution to q
| science. So far as the trusts are con-
cerned, this remedy is akin to the
action of locking the stable door after
the horse is stolen. The present enor-
nous industrial corporations own all
| the sources of raw material supply
and have capital sufficient to always
secure and use the best improved ma
chinery. Before equal shipping IA
cilities and freight rates can be of
any benefit to competitor with q
modern trust it must first be able to
sell it's wares in it's own factory as
cheaply as the trust can sell.
Lastly, there is the tariff plank.
Let us briefly summarize: England
has free trade and yet almost all her
lines of industry are controlled by
industrial combinations, such as we
call trusts. But her free trade does
this-it gives the benefit of cheap
ness in production to the masses of
the people, the consumers, because
free trade keeps prices down and the
trades unions keep wages up, at least,
as much as lies in their power. And
reduce prices of manufactured arti-
cles, free trade would surely do for
the United States, but labor would
| ,f ho in
, duced wages. And if the modern So
called trust, with its cost of produc-
, tion and distribution reduced to a
minimum is not expected to be able
, to survive the competition of foreign
goods, what is to become of the indie
pendent or non-trust concern which
; is trying to compete with the trust?
If the manufacturing industries OF
this nation, organized as they are
: into trusts, cannot survive the COM
petition of foreign goods, then, in
deed and verify, in the case of the COM
! petitors of the trusts, the remedy
would prove worse than the disease.
And even if the trusts could and did
, barely succeed in holding the home,
or domestic market, what would be-
come of the independent, antitrust
: concerns?
If foreign goods can, in fact, be
laid down in the United States so as
, to sell for lower prices than our home
: made goods are now selling for, then
free trade, although it would not
break up the trusts, would result in
giving us cheaper goods in many lines
! But who would be benefited and who
! | ha ha "A
' hurt the trusts. 1t is true that in
vestors in trust stock shares might
suffer and the capitalization of the
trusts might have to be reduced Oh
e lower dividends be paid. But the
greatest sufferers would be the Ameri
: can mechanics, artisans and laborers
who would be ground to powder be-
( tween the upper and neither stones OF
: their competition with each other
4 4 for employment and the competition
| of the employing trusts with theil
i foreign competitors. But the trusts
s would continue to exist, because they
t would illustrate the theory of the sur
S vival of the fittest in industrial and
v commercial organism and because
). they are the very best form of organ
s ism under which the manufacturers O.
{ the United States could undertake Il
: compete with foreign goods.
k Mr.. Sulzer, of New York, says of tn.
e conference:
)" "It has been success. The benefi
G cial effects of it's work viii be fal
g reaching and the results deep anf
i lasting. So far as the trusts are con
d cerned, il is the beginning of the end
: They will be either crushed by tn.
$ law. OF the people will own and con
troll them for the good of society
r and the benefit of all. One or ths
= other will happen and tnat befor'
q long,"
X What is the use of this campaign o
= subterfuge and vacillation? If we be
# lieve that competition is the life o.
. trade" let us advocate it, though 1t b.
o the: death of humanity. If we want Il
q own and control the manufacturing
: industries of the nation 'for the goot
. of society and the benefit of all'' le
RI MS say so and make a fight to tha
. end. Let us be either fish or fowl
: either individualists or socialists. Blu
q do not let us use individualism as tn,
- Trojan horse in which to conceal 80