The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-31

ultimately become public property and be managed by public officials in the interest of the whole community in ac- cordance with the well dehned theory that public ownership Is necessary where competition Is impossible. go not know that the country is ready for this change. I do not know that a majority of my own party favors 1t, but believe than an increasing number CT the members of all parties see in public ownership the sure remedy for discrini- nations between persons and politics and for the extortionate rates for tha carrying of freight and passengers. Operate Trunk Lines. Believing, however. that the opera ton of all the railroads by the Federal zation which would all but obliterate State lines, l prefer to see only thS trunk lines operated by the Federal government and the local lines by the several State governments.
 Some have opposed this dual owner ship as impracticable, but investigation in Europe has convinced me that 1t is railroads of Germany are owned by the several States. the Empire not /evep owning the trunk lines. and yet, the Interstate traffic is in no wise obstruct- ed. In travelling from constantinopie to Vienna, one passes through Turkey Bulgaria, Servia. Hungaria and part of Austria. without change Of cars and yet each country owns and oper- ates it's own railroads and different languages are spoken on the different divisions or the line.
 Sweden and Norway each owns its railroads, but they have no trouble about interstate traffic although their political relations are somewhat strain local lines by the several State gov, ernments is not only feasible. but 1t suits Itself to the condition existing in where the peope are rpe for changes the local lines can be purchased, or new lines built at once. while private owner ship can continue in those States Tn ownership. Some States have beeu more careful than others to prevent the watering of stock and in the acquiring of roads. Each State can act accord ing to the situation it has to meet.
 Government Has Right To Own.
 AS to the right of the government. Federal or State. to own and operate railroads there can be no doubt. If we can deepen the water In the lakes and build connecting canals in order to the year. we can build railroad and cheapen rates all the year. If we can spend several hundred millions of doi- lars on the canal to lower trans-conti- railroad from New York to San Fran cisco to lower both transcontinental and local rates. The United States mail is increasing so rapidly that we shalt soon be obliged to pay the interest 0a the cost nf trunk lines out of the money which we now pay to railroads for cas- |
 If any of you question the propriety of my mentioning this subject. beg to remind you that the President could rate bill had he not appealed to the fear of the more radical remedy Of govern ment ownership and nothing will so rs- strain the railroad masnates from at. tempting to capture the Interstate Commerce Commission as the same fear. The high handed manner in which they have violated law and ignored au- kHrAr Ha anp Sfs discovered In high places, has done more to create sentiment in favor of the public ownership than all the speeches and arguments of the opponents of prt~
 i have referred to the railfoad aues- tion as part of the trust question is difficult to consider one without tho other.
 Just a word more in regard to the trusts. Some defend them on the velopment and that they cannot be prevented without great injury to our industrial system This may be an- a political development rather than an economic, and second, the trust sys- tenn cannot be permitted to continue, even though it did result in a net eco-
 It is a political system because 1t rests upon the corporation and the corporation rests upon statutory
 
 ing a natural development. is a form of legalized larceny and can exist only so long as the law permits 1t to exist. That there is an economic advantage in production on large scale may be admitted, but because 8 million yards of cloth can be produced In one factory at a lower price per yard than 100000 yards can be produced in the same fac tory. it does not following that cloth would be produced at still lower price per yard if all the cloth consumed one factory or under one management. There Is a point beyond which the eco homie advantage of large production ceases.
 The moment an industry approaches the position of monopoly 1t begins to lose in economic advantage a large production ceases. The moment an tn- g monopoiy EpPtGs It begins g to lose ss in eeo1omc efficiency, for a monopoly discouragcs invention, invites deterioration in. quality and destroys a most potent fac- tor in production, viz: individual am bition.
 But the political objections to trust overcome any economic advantage which 1t can possibly have. No eco homie advantage can justify an indus trial despotism or compensate nation for the loss of independence among it's producers. Political liberty could not long endure under an industrial system which permitted few powerful mag mates to control the means of liveli- hood of the rest of the people,
 Landlordship, the curse of Europe, is an innocerN institution in comparison with the trust, when the trust is car ried to its logical conclusion. The man who argues that there is an eco homie advantage in private monopoly is aiding socialism. The socialist as- serting the economic superiority of the monopoly insists that its benefits shall accrue to the whole people and his con- clusfon cannot be denied if the supe- riority of monopoly is admitted. The Democratic party, If I understand it's position, denies the economic as well as the political advantage of private monopoly and promises to oppose it wherever it manifests itself. It offers as an alternative, competition where competition is possible and public mo- nopoly wherever circumstances are such as to prevent competition.
 Socialism a Theory.
 Socialism presents a consistent the ory, but a theory which in my tudg- ment does not take human nature into account Its strength is in its attack upon evils. the existence of which Is confessed. Its weakness is that 1t would substitute a new diseasfA-lf not q worse oae-for the disease from which we suffer.
 The socialist is honest in the belief that he has found a remedy for hu- man ills, and Fe must be answered with argument. not with abuse. The best way to oppose socialism is to remedy the abuses which have grown up under indivi1uallsm but which are
 tcontinued On Page seven)