Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-08-08

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of wealth? The laws of our nation
cannot say that a man shall not be
worth more than one million dollars.
The maximum might as well be fixed
at one thousand or even five hundred
dollars. Neither can the law safely
say that two or more persons shall
| not combine their wealth for the pro-
motion of some lawful object. There
fore although there is one evil which is
known to exist there is no remedy
either republican or democratic.
! 1t is true that the trust soon drives
the small competitor out of business,
and this is often done by cutthroat
methods. But it must be remem-
bered that the small competitor would
have been driven to the wall in open
and free competition with the trust.
For example, the small scale producer
of oil could not long and successfully
compete with the tank cars, storage
tanks and pipe lines of the Standard
Oil Company. While do not ap-
prove of the methods employed to
drive out independent producers, l
| do believe it to be better for the vast
population who use oil to have it re-
duced in price, as it has been, than it
would be to pay the higher prices
merely to extend for time the life
of the independent oil refiner. The
small producer is driven from bust
ness because the trust sells its pro-
duct far below actual cost, for the
very purpose of attracting business
which would otherwise go to the
competitor. The competitor cannot
long stand the strain and he either
fails in business or joins the trust.
While this condition is deplorable
cen conceive of no remedy for it.
The law cannot fix the maximum and
minimum rate at which certain arti
cles are to be sold. The dealer must
always be allowed to fix his own price.
If such laws were attempted our leg
islatures and congress would be kept
busy on those alone and it would re-
quire one half our population to en-
force the laws against the other half.
The only remedy which the small pro-
Queer has is to join the trust or go
down in defeat before an organization
against which he cannot compete.
The people of America have come
to look upon competition as means
of securing and maintaining low prices
on the commodities which they must
buy. This is a blind worship of an
institution which in the long run is
detrimental to any commercial enter
prise. To be sure sharp competi-
ton does for time reduce prices far
the purchaser comes to believe that
he must rely upon competition to
keep prices within his reach. He is
mistaken in his belief and in the end
the purchaser must pay the expenses
of the competition. When a Compel
tive war is on between two or more
companies, the rivalry results in
prices far below living rates and it is
continued until one or the other fails
or they both meet and establish
uniform price. If one party fails the
surviving one Immediately puts prices
high enough to make good his loss.
If the parties meet and establish
uniform rate it is made high enough
to make good the losses of both. In
either case it is the purchaser who
must make good the loss. Our con-
clusion then must be that fierce and
fatal competition demoralizes bust
ness and is a very expensive luxury
for all concerned, and that in the end
the burden of competition, like teh
burden of taxes, must fall upon the
man who buys. Prices in the long
run are established not by competi-
: tive rates but by the universal law of
supply and demand.
One of the most fragrant evils of
the trust, and one for which there is
no justification, is the method of wa
tering stock and thereby deceiving
the investing public. The only re-
deeming feature of this evil is that it's
victims are those who have more
money than is needed for the reces-
saries of life. 1t is the man who has
money to invest in some get-rich-
quick schemes that falls victim to
watered stock. The best illustration
of watering stock may be found in the
late ship building trust. Several in
dependent companies were engaged
in ship building. The ship building
trust was formed and the several
companies were taken in. The cap
italization of the new organization
was fixed at a sum far in excess of
the total wealth of all the companies.
This was done in the hope that by
creating a monopoly of the trade,