The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-30

whom he cannot even choose.
| A. Edward Bellamy was man descend
ed from a long line of strong New Eng
landers and he possessed a faclle pen.
| He undertook to write novel-purely a
work of fiction. He called 1T Looking
Backward The substance OF the story
was a picture drawn OF an ideal sociahstlc
state, and drawn in such a way as to be
most allurin@ to the reader. When Ed
ward Bellamy started to write the book
he was no more of a Socialist than his
| Puritan ancestors, but he convinced him.
| self IN writing it and thereafter lived
| and died a leader of the Socialist party.
| The book describes how happy men and
women become under conditions where
the state takes all the initiative, is the
sole exploiter of industry. the sole en-
ployer of labor, the sole owner of prop
erty.
| The book was answered by another
which was called Looking Further
Backward" and the answering book tells
how the lovely condition of things which
Bellamy painted came to an end The
people who never took the initiative fin
ally lost all power of taking it. They had
Travelled in ruts until they could not
travel outside of rut. New conditions
| arose Another nation which had retain
ed the initiative taking power assailed the
nation which had lost that power and
| there could be but one result
| If our nation should ever come to the
point where combination has gone to the
extreme limit and there is but one en-
ployer of labor, one exploiter of industry
in all the United States. we should be
4 tn no
described by Edward Bellamy except that
the employer would be private corpora
ton within the state instead of the state
itself-a distinction which would be en-
tirely in favor of the Edward Bellamy
deal.
/ If there must be an industrial despot.
| it seems clear that it is better that 1T
should be the state itself than the states
creature.
Combination and the resulting monopoly
| lead straight to socialism. II the time
ever comes when there is only one or
| q dozen corporations controlling the in
dustries of this great land and having
| tEeir directors and managers elected by
the stockholders, it will be but a very
easy step to legislate that those directors
and managers shall be elected by the
|
constitutional restrictions would be inn
potent to stay the storm of such legis-
| lation.
| We believe in our individualistic civill-
zation. It has been the ladder by which
! the race has climbed to its present
heights 1t has been a rough teacher,
but it has taught us the lessons we could
have learned in no other way. 1t has
| O;x, ,hat
what we are. 1t is that, and that alone,
that separates us from our troglodyte
ancestors. We believe in clinging to that
civilization that has done so much for us
and to the teacher that has taught us so
/ well. We fear, socialism. We have no
desire to live in world where it pre-
walls We are not willing to give up the
privilege Of taking the initiative for our
selves or to live In the society OF men
who have not the power to take it for
themselves. 1t is because we are opposed
to socialism, it is because we believe in
the economic virtue of our industrial sys-
tine that we regard the modern tendency 10
! combination and monopoly as the greatest
danger that has ever threatened our race.
We must curb this tendency even though
we do pay more for bread and meat and
[
comforts and luxuries of life. We can
not afford to barter our manhood for all
the physical comforts in the world. We
cannot afford to allow these combinations
and monopolies to go unlimited and un-
restrained, no matter how great may be
their economic righteousness. Economic
gain must yield to the requirements of
! patriotic manhood.
4 OWL however more annarpnt
/ than the remedy is easy to find.
Whatever remedy we adopt must be
such as fits the disease. We have found
competition to be necessary to the vel
| fare of the nation and the best good of
| the people The destruction of competi-
ton is therefore the disease. Its restora-
ton is the cure. The question is What
can the law and lawyers do to effect the
cure? What is the duty of the American
Bar Association in this regard?
There are some things the law cannot
do. 1t cannot make men do uneconomic
things. 1t must make the things which
| it does not wish done uneconomic. 1t
cannot compel men to sell their wares
at loss, to pay Improbable wages or
| to adopt unbusiness-hke methods. If 1T
could and did, it would destroy the basis
good The men who combine when com
bination is profitable are not criminals.
They are simply astute men who are do
| ing business on business principles, fol-
| lowing out the logic of our civilization.
The man who would sell calico at four
cents yard when he could get five cents
would not be a philanthropist, but fool.
J The man who pays two dollars day
wages when he can get the same thing
dcne for a dollar and half is not pub
| lie benefactor, but public demorallzer.
The two men who combine their trade
when there is profit in the combination
are following lines on which the conduct
| OF all business depends.
The remedy is not to punish prosperity
or to try to make things criminal that
ale not so. The remedy should be found
| III making it Improbable to do that
which the community determines should
not be done.
| Laws now on the statute book, like the
| Sherman Antitrust Law and the legIs-
lation of the last Congress which attempt
ed to REINFORCE it, are in our judgment of
H.. I..A