Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-05-28

/ JueiT SlTlCl9Sl dCcOuul Is luG lAoAh'
and structure Of things in the work
governed, after all, by the everlasting
law of fair dealing among men. The
progress of society from the itineran'
shoemaker, carrying his tools and his
stock with him, fashioning footwear
for the entire family while he tarriee
under their humble roof, to the nam
moth shoe factories of New England
, is by far more startling in its effect
upon the community than the absorp
ton of all these great plants into one
could possibly be.
Even Monopoly Must Study Markets,
When l have reflected therefore, up
on what might happen to us If any
of our varied industrial fields should
pass into a single ownership, have
found good deal of comfort in the
thought that even such an institution,
from its foundation up, would be com
passed about by far-reaching limita-
tions upon its power to oppress and
degrade the market place which 1t
had been called to serve, so that IL
one of our modern trusts should man
age to secure and hold, by fair means
or foul, the exclusive production of a
given article of general use snd nee
essity, in the very nature of the case
not only it's permanent grip upon the
market but it's profit from year to
year would require its managers to
divide with the community the saw
ings incident to it's improved methods
and to put it's product with the reach
of the people upon the fairest and
most equitable terms
1t is a maxim of every great bust
ness that it moves upon tonnage and
its whole problem is to secure the
wide distribution of it's product rather
than to reap extortionate profits upon
limited SALE The government of
the United States, If you will allow
me to make an example of the only
perfect monopoly there is in the coun-
try. has always jealously guarded it's
exclusive right in the manufacture and
sale of postage stamps. Again and
again the price Of them has been put
down--from 20 cents to 15, from 15 to
10, from 10 to 5, from to 8, from 8
to 2. Every one of these reductions
has been for the purpose of increasing
the postal revenues. and every one
of them has so speedily brought about
that result that today there are shrewd
people who think that fiat reduction
of letter postage to cent would still
further increase the receipts of the
service.
On Law OF Maximum Consumption.
What law is that? It is the law of
maximum consumption, by virtue Of
which the profits of a great business
are multiplied; not by the arts of ex-
tortion and greed, but by deliberately
the price of the article until
its use reaches from the few to the
millions. That 1t a law
which God made and which congress
has not yet repealed.
Not one of the trusts, not even those
which, like the American Sugar Rein
ing company, have approached most
nearly to a monopoly, is exempt from
hat law. They watch the more dili-
gently than ever the signs of the mar.
Net, for they know better than any.
body else that their profit is in the
'ale and not in the manufacture OF
heir goods.
Even such monopoly as a railroad
las learned that its dividends are
more secure with big business done
n fair way with a friendly commun-
ty than with a precarious business
conducted on lines which impoverish
is patronst and leave them stripped
nd embittered at every station along
he line. How else shall we account
VI NhN lASb bhdt inc COuSOliudNlOu VI |
he American railway system has
een accompanied with a steady de
line of rates, until today they are
ess than 90 per cent of what they |
1ere 20 years ago and less by far than
nywhere else In the whole world. |
he motto. Charge what the trafie
dll bear" belongs to a rudimentary
tage of railway management, long
lnce superseded by the more en-
ghtened selfshness which studies of
ne territory upon which its earnings
depend.
There is another common law in
erent In the nature of things which
lands guard in the market places of
ne earth against the exactions of
reed, even when 1t is clothed with
he powers and opportunities of mon
poly. and that is the law Of deferred