Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-12-28
STATE SOCIALISM
TARIFF FED TRUSTS RESPONSIBLE
FOR STATE interference.
President SChurman, OF Cornell Uni.
verSitV, Is Mistaken When He Saws
Trusts Are Normal rtethOd Of
Organizing Modern Business. High
Tariff Permits the Method,

In an address before the Corn EX-
position in Omaha on Wednesday last
DR.. Schurman, president of Cornell
University, greatly deplored the wide
spread of the spirit of Socialism
among American citizens, and sought
the cause of it in the jealousy of the
poor toward the possesors of great
wealth. OF the spread of Socialism
there is small evidence in the re-
turns of the late election, when Debs
the Socialist candidate for president,
received less than half million
votes in total of nearly 100000.
There is no doubt, however, that a
great deal of the spirit of Socialism
turks in both the leading political
parties, as witnessed in the various
schemes of legislation for state inter-
ference in the private business Of
the people. President Schurman ad-
midable of these schemes, govern
ment ownership and control of the
railways, has little attraction for the
people of this country. 1t must be-
said that Government control of the
railways has made immense strides in
recent years, if there be in that any
cialism. AS for envy of the rich, there
is probably a good deal less of it
among the poor than among the
wealthy, who are jealous of those
who possess more riches than them
selves.
President Schurman, who is quite
political economist, then proceeds
to air his favorite proposition that
the trusts are a normal method Of
organizing modern business, and
that their reasons of existence are
that they eliminate expense, secure
efficiency and by means of produc-
tiOn on a large scale cheaper the
cost of commodities. Set to varied
tunes, this has been dinned into the
ears Of the American people, 10! these
many years, and it is as far as ever
from acceptance as economic wis.,
dom. The philosophic champions of
the trusts, whether unconsciously or
deliberately, evade the main fact con-
nected with the rise and develop
ment of these industrial combina-
tions. So far from being a normal
mode of organizing modern business,
they are abnormal growths in that
they owe their success to a form of
the state Socialism which President
Schurman deplores in a high protc-
tive tariff.
Take away this government prop
and there would be no just cause of
complaint Of the trusts. When, by
securing greater efficiency of produc-
tion, lessening the cost and better
ing the quality of commodities, they
drive their rivals from the field they
are welcomed by consumers. But
instead of thus vindicating the rea-
sons of their existence the witnesses
of the trusts daily appearing before
the Committee of Ways and Means,
tell plainly enough what they de-
pend upon for success. Without tar
iff favOritism, the sugar trust could
not have swollen to it's enormous pro-
portions. Without this means of
eliminating competition the giant of
these combinations, the steel trust,
could not have launched it's immense
volume of watered stocks and pay
dividends upon them out of the re-
sources of the American people.
1t is all nonsense, then, to talk Of
these trusts as normal develop
ment Of modern business" against
whose existence it is mischievous to
legislate. What is sought is not the
making Of bad new laws against
these combinations, but a reform Of
the bad old laws that favor them.
Where trade is free to combat them
they will have to yield to their more
nimble competitors, and soon Ian
guish and die. For the rest, the pro-
tective tariff, which President Schur-
man ignores, is more potent than all
other causes for the growth of what
Socialism there is in this country.