The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-04-05

and financial ruin. This charge seems
to be well proved, but has it been SIM
ner above all others? What evolutions,
what changes in business methods dur
ing the last fifty years have permeatef
every thing in this line. from the high
est to the lowest, till it becomes almost
impossible TO make distinctions be-
tween the good and legitimate and the
bad. In the competitions of business
the strong are often trying to drive out
their competitors. so as to have the
whole field to themselves, and the
methods resorted to have been as bad
and brutal as those of the Standard Oil
company, but on smaller scale. The
number that have met financial ruin
through the methods of this company
are but 1.-THE of those who have been
ruined by similar business methods in
other lines. When we see the small
manufacturer or the small wholesale
or retail trader so down before those of
larger means and greater business abiI-
ity we say, well, this is a survival OF
| the fittest." Many modern ways of do
ing business, which are not condemned,
have resulted in the financial ruin of
| thousands. A man of this city who once
had small store which yielded him
| living, was driven out by the competi-
ton of larger stores, and 1 met him on
Chapel street by the side of his express
wagon. which brought him very small
income, and he looked up to a sign on
department store and said. Thirty
Stores In One, That and similar ones
| is what has ruined me. If it was not
for these there would be in this city
three hundred small stores. each MAX
ing living. more landlords, more
clerks and more employed. and the
whole community better off, The man
did not seem to get much consolation
from his acknowledgement that these
stores were able to furnish goods much
cheaper to the consumer than under the
old way. After all, is 1t desirable TO go
back to the former ways of doing bus
mess?
The second charge against the Stan
dard Oil company is that it has accu-
mulated its vast fortune by rebates on
freight charges, and while this may
not be true now, It is well proved that
! it was so formerly The pipe lines
have in large measure supplemented
the railroad The sin, If any, must be
shared by the managers of the roads
who gave this valuable privilege at
the expense of the stockholders, and
the injury of other patrons of the road.
But let 1t be remembered that this COM
pany was not the only sinner in those
days. The competition of the numer~
Gus competing railroads without, at
that time, any community Of interests"
which in many cases exists now, and
the amount of freights, In the aggre-
gate much less than now, had brought
in "cut throat" competition, which
bankrupted about half the railroads,
and left but few that paid any divi-
dends. In most cases the initiative was
often not by the freighters, but by the
roads, offering cut rates, if large
shippers give all their business to one
line, and this went on till goods were
carried at less than first cost. 1t went
from oil to other things, all over the
country, where there was any compe-
tition, till no dealer, in any line knew
/ how he stood with his competitor. No
one seemed to think it was wrong to
| accept OF these favors any more than.
If he was having Concessions of less
than usual rates from competing fac
tory. The writer, who was then in bus
mess in another. city, where there were
two competing roads, while he did not
ask for it. was solicited to have all his
freights come by one line, and if so he
would have had a substantial, deduc-
ton. not on the freight bill, but a pri.
vate return, through the head office.
which he accepted, much to his advan-
tage, but of course to the disadvantage
of his competitors. He did not then
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