The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-09-06

wage earners were receiving a greater
proportion of wages. Never before in
the history of the world has there been
such prosperity shown as in this coun-
try: and certainly he would be an
arch-conspirator against the happiness
OF all the people who would deliber-
ately or negligently do anything to
destroy it.
The men, therefore, who are to be
trusted and should be charged with
the duty Of curling corporate and cap
ttalisttc abuses, are those who fully
appreciate and value fairly and wisely
the usese of aggregate wealth as capt.
tai, and recognize 1t as indispensable
to the prosperity of the community
and the pursuit of happiness by the
people, and yet who at the same time
fully recognize the evils of the abuses
which have arisen by its misuse, and
the necessity for their correction.
Character Of A ASg:e; Of Organized
For the sake of clearness in examin-
ing into the character of the evils and
abuses which restraint and punish
ment, we may divide corporations
guilty Of them into industrial corpora
lions, organized for the purpose of
manufacture and sale of merchandise,
and into railroad and other corpora
lions, organized for the transporta-
ton of passengers, and goods. Let us
deal first with Industrial corporations.
The valuable consideration moving to
the public for comforting the privilege
and franchise necessary in the incor-
pOration Of capital in such corpora
tons Is the public benefit to be de-
rived in the lowering of prices. The
temptation to the managers, however,
when the enterprises become very
large Is to suppress competition and
maintain prices and thus to deny to
the public its proper share in the
benefit sought to be attained, and to
appropriate to the corporate owners all
the. profit derived from improved IA
cilities of production. One method of
suppressing competition is by agree
ments between all the large concerns
engaged in the same business to limit
the output and maintain prices. Such
agreements. are usually secret, and
are difficult for public officials to OBJ
tain proof of; but when these agree
ments to become public and are sue
cessfully prosecuted, this method is
abadoned, and the independent cor
porations that acted together under
secret agreements to maintain prices
are absorbed into one great corpora
ton, SO that the large proportion Of the
producing capital in a single industry
is placed under one control. Then
competition with the trust thus formed
is excluded by ingenious contracts of
sale with middlemen, distributors
and retail dealers, who are coerced
by the agents of the trust into
maintenance of retail prices and a
withdrawal of all patronage from
smaller independent and competing
producer through the knowledge and
fear that the trust in times of active
demand for its products will either
refuse to sell or will sell only at dis
eliminating prices to those who do
not comply with it's conditions of sale.
The evil result of such combinations
and the injury which has flowed from
them have given great Importance to
the principle of law that acts done
with the intent and result of injuring
another may become unlawful and ac-
tionable when done by many persons
or by the use of many different instru-
mentalitfes combined for the purpose
although the same acts with the same
intent when done or attempted to be