The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1906-06-08

why i am surprised at YOU com
I petition IS the life OF trade! This IS
I the idea entertained by almost every
one. We have all accepted it as true,
without Logically analizing it Let's ex-
anime it carefully little, logically,
and see how much life Of trade viii
I be left
First, we viii look at what is gen
orally known as the business" stand
point A town may have two stores
in it, a third comes into the town, the
gentleman being a stranger does not
/ have much Of a chance for trade, so
he cuts the price Of goods and the peO-
[ pie flock to the new store like SQuak-
l ing geese The two old stores lose
many customers, also much trade. So
they cut a little deeper than the new
man 70 get their old customers back,
by this time the new man has pref
ty good trade and cannot easily be
driven out Of business Things finally
settle down and all three sell at about
the same price But here comes the
fourth man with a new store and
some more cut prices. And the peO-
pie flock to him like monkeys around
a cOcOanut tree. One man after an
petition is so strong, profits so small
some Of them can hardy live Some
of the citizens are sending to Sears
ROebuCk for goods. The merchants
send up a howl for not patrOnizing
home institutions. Why hOWl2 Com
petition is the life Of trade-see the
point The more competition the
louder the howl They must buy their
goods closer Of the manufacturer or
coal miner as the case may be. The
tie sooner than have them buy OF a
competitor that viii try to get their
trade. In the course Of time cOmpe-
titiOn has cut all the profits out Of
the manufacturers margin. He can
not raise the price Of his goods as
his competitor Will come and get the
order. So the thing goes, some hit
the ceiling, Chat Is break up, others
work years for little or nothing and
on the verge Of bankruptcy Say fell
low, competition is the life Of trade. p
At this point everything is in shape
to start the trust And the trust was
at this time inevitable You could
not stop ii or any one else; cOmpeti-
ton could not be reformed, il had TO
be destroyed utter destruction alone
would save business. So with every
thing already, a few manufactures
combine. Others are persuaded TO
enter, now we have ten or fifteen mill
lion dollars in the combine and ask
you to come in. You decline, the com
bine sends its agents to your custom
ers and gives him prices on goods
that are less than you can make them
for, as they have millions and can buy
crude material cheaper than you, on
account Of competition in crude ma
terial going lower prices on larger
quantities Inan you could Duy. 30 you
are helpless Will you be good now
and come into the combine or viii
you break up in business You can
take your choice for this is a free
country, and competitions the life OF
trade you know You stand before
the inevitable-the trust You are
forced to chOOse-there's no free
country about it You are as much in
bondage in the competitive system as
the COlOred man was fOrty-fve. years
ago in slavery. And if your eye teeth
have begun to cut you ought to see
it. You go into the combine So men
continue to go in until all the manu-
facturers are members Of what we
now call ''the trust If competition
is the life Of trade" viii you please
tell me where the competition is in
the manufacture Of tobacco tOday2
Is competition refOrming2 No; it's
utterly destroyed.
ITO he continued