Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1908-09-26

by its rivals before a single year has
passed-its factories Idle, its freight
cars empty, its laDorers without Work,
It's farmers without markets.
But big business also means higher
wages and steadier employment tor
labor. For example, ldDOrers thirty
years ago under the ola lack Of sys-
tenn were not consulted about rates
OF wages or length of employment.
But today the big business organiza-
ton agrees with ats laDorlng men on
these things. Compared with the
wages ana employment OF thirty years
ago those of today are as fixed stars
com pared to skyrockets. Ask the ar
tisan whether he prefers the constant
work and high wages our great con-
Germs afford him today. or the occa-
sional JOB and shifting pay the little
concerns afforded him yesterday.
Always a certain class of men have
appealed to those of us who are less
prosperous than our brothers to wreck
the conditions that have made us bosh
prosperous in different degrees. But
If the oppositIon's plan is good, let us
adopt 1t. Never scare at name;
never hold to a prejudice. What,
then, lie this new business plan? Let
US give it a fair hearing and endorse
| it if it stands the test of reason.
The opposition proposes that no
concern doing business in more Than
one state shall control as much as
rs per cent of the product in which
it deals until it takes out federai
| license to do business at all, and that
| thereafter lit shall not control more
| than 90 per cent of any commodity.
| This license may be granted or with
drawn at any time by any administra-
ton. But business depends upon GER
| tainty.
| Suppose any business man offended
the president or even the chief OF the
bureau which handled this license sys-
| tenn. Suppose this president or Off,
Ger should declare that he was "con-
trolling more than 20 per cent OF the
product in which he dealt'-he would
be forced to stop his business until ne
got a license. Having got license
suppose his enemy would say that ne
was doing more business than the law
allowed. In both cases the burden Ci
proof is on the business man. Shall
we make another Venezuela out oi
the United States? The franchise
plan would Venezuelaize American
|
Venezuela but not for America.
Take agricultural implements, II
which there is now one concern larg
er than any other; and that concern
selling more cheaply on the average
than the various concerns of which u
was formed. Probably it does mos
Of the agricultural business in th'
United States; but the franchise plai
considers no probabilities. A fraction
more than 20 per cent stops any bust
tness unless it takes out license. How
would the government find out thos
exact facts? Outside this big conceri
many dealers still make agriculture
implements. Would government ag
ricultural implement agents max
daily, weekly or monthly visits I
each of the Independent companies
examine their books, and then go t
the retailers and examine theirs
: Thousands of country blacksmith
shops still make har~ows and plows
The government agents would ais
have to examine these. 1t would tax
| ten thousand men constantly at worl
, , to find out whether the big concer
actually did control more than 20 pc
cent of the product; and even tn
report of this army of agents coul
only be a guess. And if it wer
! correct today it might be changed tc
morrow. Investigation is good whe
needed-harmful when not require'
What man could live IL you kel
probing the wound after the ball,
, had been removed?
= The opposition denounces the II
crease in government officials; bl
-, their franchise plan would create
= hundred where there is now one. Sha
we put American busiress in II
hands of a Russian bureaucracy
!, Shall the American republic copy II
> czar's famous Third Section" an
put American business under its e'
= pionage?