The age-herald., 1901-12-15
HON. MAURICE M. MINToN.

are easily made and laws regulating the admission of foreign corporations into a state are within the Jurisdiction of the Legislatures. If the people can cause laws to be made in their interests by their legislators many evils can be avoided in the future which today are made possible under the existing acts. One of these lies in the real value of capital stock But stocks. like water, in their own time seek their level. The water in stock leaks out if not held in by artificial means. It matters not whether there be an over capitalization where the company formed consists of an aggregation of individuals or aggregation of companies. The value will assert itself in time.
 The evil of trusts it seems to me. is only in so far as the value of watered stock Is maintained by the earning of div idends upon it by a system of wringing profits out of the public, compelled as consumexs either to purchase its wares or employ it's services. When a combi- nation of companies controls an industry 1t makes the price. It is not reasonable to say the purchaser need not make the
 
 go without. The article is necessity. There is no alternative. Or if it be a mater of transportation for self or mer- chandise, there may be no alternative. When the price fixed and exacted for com modity or service contemplates a divi- dend on watered stock it represents a value to a certificate of stock which has no equivalent or reason for existence ex- cept such as has been established by legal or financial legerdemain. This profit, so obtained. Is a mere highway robbery-the exaction of a tribute from a powerless victim.
 Combinations of capital and centraliza- tion of industries may impose hardships upon employees by limiting the number; but the condition arises from good man agement. New industries will absorb those discarded just as the introduction of number of persons employed. yet create labor in new fields. To my way of think Ing no sound argument can be declared against trusts on these lines. But as these corporations exist under the ben eficent auspices of government they should rigidly conform. or be compelled
 
 land, and should not be permitted to grow into monsters swallowing all by exacting a tribute. They exist by reason of the cust om or patronage they enjoy. When they exact by reason of monopoly profits on capital not invested. they wiring price for the commodity they control that Is excessive There is no reason why the customer living under the law of the state should not enoy the same rights as the persons interested in the manufac- ture and sale of the commodity
 To me the great question is not whether companies should unite or be restrained from uniting. but rather whether they should be permitted to fix the price. The state should control the price of the commodity. This price should secure to the persons, interested in the industry a legitimate profit for labor and capital on one hand and should secure to the person purchasing the commodity a legitimate price on the other. That one class the producer, should legally rob the other class, the consumer is beyond all ques- ton a grievous wrong.
 It seems scarcely possible in a nation SoApoSeo ol Peopie CidiHlinS an equal light in the pursuit of life, liberty and haI piness, that one great class of peo- pie shall be made to toll from early to late, to pay fictitious prices for the ben eft of another class. Honest capital, rep- resenting the savings of a people like fcnest labor, should be safe-guarded. But I see no reason why the trickster of Wall street who for profit of twelve dollars Ter an,iun on ore hundred dol lers of n1oney. should be permitted to hsue another hundred dollars worth of stock ard by reason of paying six dol lars per annum on the hundred dollars of money end six dollars on the exhibit of the printing press force all men to pay their price for the commodity they sell. My contention lies in the belief that the second SIX dollars belong to the pur-' chaser. The vast fortunes that have