The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-08-25

an exorbitant price, this is evidence
that it is attempting an unlawful mon
opolv and justifies conviction under
the antitrust law"
II such an act is now unlawful, why
is he so frightened at plan which
gives to the small competitor this very
protection? The trouble with the pres
ent law is that it does not restrain
the evils at which it is aimed. The
plan proposed in the Democratic plat
form brings the corporation under the
surveillance of the government when
it has reached the danger point, and
thereafter subjects it to federal scru-
tiny. The present law simply pro-
hibits it in an indefinite sort of way,
and then leaves the officers of the law
to scour the country and hunt up vio-
lations of the laws provisions. Mr..
Taft Is unduly alarmed at this proposal
or else he entirely fails to comprehend
the details Of the plan. He says:
ITO supervise the business of corpor-
atoms in such a way as to fix the price
of commodities and compel the sale at
such price is as absurd and socialistic
Democratic political platform
And yet this sentence is found in
the same paragraph with the sentence
above quoted in which he declares that
it is even now violation of the Sher-
man antitrust law for corporation to
attempt to destroy a competitor by
selling at a low and Improbable price
where it has competition, and at an
exorbitant price where it has no COM
petition In what respect is our plan
more socialistic than the plan which
Mr.. Taft endorses? Merely In the fact
that ours can be enforced. According
to Mr.. Taft's logic, plan is not social
istic which is not effective, but the
same would be socialistic If made eff
fective Why should corporation
supplying twenty millions Of people
for a corporation controlling 25 per
cent OF the total product supplies one
fourth, or more, of our population
should such a corporation be permitted
to sell at one price in one part of the
country and at another price in an.
other part? What reason can a cor
poration have for such discrimination
Prices are not made as a matter of ia
vor when a big corporation sells to
the people of one section at one price
and the people of another section at
another price-the cost of transporta-
tion being taken into consideration
there is a reason for it, and in almost
every case the reason Is to be found
in the effort to destroy a competitor.
90 l.. "a
the trust Is to undersell a small com
petitor in the small competitors terri
tory-the price being maintained else
where-until the small competitor is
driven to bankruptcy and then the
price is raised. That has been done
over and over again. 1t Is open and
notorious; and yet, with the Republi-
can party in complete power at Wash
ington, what effort has been made to
prevent this. This remedy, although
vehemently denounced by Mr.. TaH,
will appeal to the average man as not
only very salutary, but very necessary.
Fifty per cent is fixed as the maxi.
mum limit When a corporation con-
trolls so per cent of the total product,
it supplies forty millions Of people with
that product Is that not enough
Mr.. Tafts objection to this limitation
can hardly be characterized as states.
manlike. He says:
"a corporation controlling As or SO
per cent of the product, may by we'll.
known methods, frequently effect a
monopoly and stamp out competition
In part Of the country as completely
thereof
Why. then, does he not propose a
lower limit? If the control Of 45 pet
cent may constitute a monopoly, why
does he not suggest that as a maxi.
mum? Il cannot be because of any
Discrimination to amend his platform,
for he has already made patchwork
quilt of the conventions platform by
promiscuous amendments.
And to what "wellknown" methods
does he refer? To the underselling of
competitors in one section while the
price is maintained elsewhere And yet
this is the very thing which we pro-
pose to remedy, but he proceeds to
denounce our remedy as absurd and
socialistic. The trouble with Secretary
Taft is that he spends SO much time
trying to discover excuses for inaction
in trust matters that he has none left
for the consideration of effective rene
dies. He spends more time uttering
warnings against remedies proposed
than he does in pointing out the evils
to be remedied or in suggested rene
dies. He says:
"The combination of capital in large
plants to manufacture goods with the
greatest economy is just as necessary
as the assembling of the parts of a ma
chine to the economical and more rap
i'd manufacture of what in old times
was made by hand"
And he adds that:
The government should not inter
fere with one any more than the other,
when such aggregations of capital are
legitimate and are properly controlled.
for they are the natural results of mod
ern enterprise and are beneficial to the
public"
4 No one proposes to interfere with
production on a large scale. No one
objects to production on scale suffi-
GENTLY large to enable the producer to
T.