The Idaho Springs siftings-news. (Idaho Springs, Colo.) 1905-19??, 1908-09-19
cuRTA1LMENT OF PRODUCTION
What Would be the Effect Of Bryan's
Plan for Curbing the Trustsf

Now comes the suggestion that, By
law, the operations Of a corporation
shall be so curtailed that to the whole
| output it shall not contribute more than
80 per cent. Those who have neither
the time nor the inclinatio to 60 below
the surface Of things may acQuiescA
but even they may not.
Presume a machine to be invented,
and presume its promoters, not only to
establish a plant for its manufacture.
but to be fortunate to the extent that
the use Of the contrivance becomes gen.
eral. At the start they make the whole
output. Then comes a rival, beginning
by producing % per cent. Down swoops
the government. compelling contrac-
tion by the pioneer.
What is the result? 1t is to reduce
the total production. though the de-
mand for the machine may be greater
than the supply. The pioneer plant
cuts of 80 per cent in obedience to gov
ermental mandate, and its rival makes
good but half of the deficiency OF
course, there are what may be called
secondary effects, and they ensue imme-
diately.
Presume the first plant to have cost
two millions and to employ 1000 men.
No sooner is the second plant estab-
lished than 1000 men are thrown out
Of work. and property represented by
a million Is converted into an Industrial
junk shop. The author Of this brilliant
idea suggests that the company sell
what it becomes illegal to use.
This is equally brilliant. 1t may
take the entire plant to produce one
machine, of which there may be many
parts. In that event, compliance with
law can come only by discharglng 1000
men or by keeping 1000 at work ON
half time. Nor does the proposition
emanate from an occupant Of a home
for the feeble-minded.
1t comes from the Democratic candi-
date for the Presidency 1t comes from
mental machinery which enjoys a mo-
nopoly of that sort Of thing OF this
machinery the aggregate output 10
large, but no effort has been made to
restrict it. One of the choicest Of its
products is that monopolies be exter.
| minated. This is pet thunderbolt-
but Mr. Bryan has the crudest notions
as to its significance. He seems to
think that in some mysterious way IL
would benefit the plain people,
A big corporation produces on a big
scale. Exterminate 1t, and 1t stops
Corporations become big for reasons
| economists have no trouble in compre-
bending. They do things by wholesale.
| And part of what they save remains in
| the pocket Of the consumer, who would
| otherwise have to pay far more for his
purchase.
Mr.. Bryan says he would dissolve,
| destroy, obliterate, extirpate, exter-
inmate. Sometimes, he says, kill. He
finds fault with Mr.. Taft because he
will make no use of these terms or Of
| synonyms for them. Well, the Repub-
lican candidate for the Presidency has
not lost his mind. He is not formulat-
| ing policy Of destruction. He knows
| that evolution from the little to the
| big was not only inevitable, but bene-
! ficent
In defamation the Nebraskan is ef-
fective and impressive; in elaboration,
in detail, in what are called specifica.
tions he is out of his element. To ask
him to be exact is to suggest that he
clip his own wings. The only known
equivalent for his Democracy il De
struction.-Brooklyn Eagle.