The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1911-05-16
MR PEaklNs, eRopAnANnA.


Having retired from The Ilrm 81 D.
~ Morgan & Co. ana with a score or
10 ii millions so invested aS to re.
turn an income sufficient for his
modest needs. MIR George w Per
ius is deyoting himself with ali bis
famous enthusiasm Go the Job OF PROV
ipg that competition. Instead oi being
ire life Is, on the contrary the death
.of trade, Even if he tfts eight sMis
fsH34$ has long. Mrd road to
Ntkal lhBore he wins general accent.
eatH A& his Views When political
leohoFAists for "a century or more
have lauded competition. and the
school teachers have dlnned the form
ula into The ears OF their millions pl
pupils Il Il difficult 20 destroy the
popular impression tha; Il is nene
feeut.
despite his long lnd successful
business career Mr Perkins As Il
naive and Ingenious gentleman and
he - PANIED when anyone linds fault
with his plea that We all get togeth-
ea and boost combinations 0f capital
Instead Of harWing them with laws
Invention, says MIR Perkins IN
which he means improved methods
.of doing business invention, says
hc, has brought us by leaps and
bounds Into the gettogether age.
aed then ne adds
ANY attempt to nuulify condi
tions which ey!st by virtue OF these
inventions viii nol succeed as Well
.tA TO chain lightning. To try to en-
force the sherman antitrust law, for
Instance is futile The only way I'd
Ilestrict and limit. as some people
want the corporations To be restrict
ed and limited, is to make ii penai
ohense for anybody 10 nse steam oi
esectricity.'
Mr Perkins not only objects ia
antitrust laws. but he objects TO the
United States supreme court passing
On business questions because, since
a man ought 70 be tried BY jury oi
his peers, business questions ought
10 be decided by business men Ac
osrdingly. Mr. Perkins fagors the
creation of supreme court Of com
nerce made up Of big business mer
who are TO settle all business differ
enoes on the theory that ignorant
congresses and judges have no war
rant for Interfering ia questions thes
know nothing about
II is generally admitted now by all
responsible ecoromists that competi
tion has its limitations ais d principle
of good, but IN his attacks Mr.. perS
ms goes to the extreme of repudiat
ing 1t absolutely Reminded that he
was treadlng on Adam Smiths toes
Mi Perkins declared In a Brooklyn
lecture Sunday night that the "kind
OF competition he (Adam Smith re
fefred to was ox-team competition BY
which one man could not do another
much harm. This would create
tfe impression that Adam Smith
merely tolerated competition as an
ianocuous evil, but the contrary was
the case.
Under the conditions OF Adam
Smiths day competition was positive
ly benedcent and ii the principle nat
not been given the freest application
there would have been nothing ap
preaching the Development Of tnt
world which the last century has
seen, With vast, virgin field call
ing for development ii was impossi
BILE to inaugurate loo many enter
lprses for the service OF mankind II
in many lines of production, we hays
reached the stage where the duplica
tiOn OF plants is uneconomc it il
time to decognize that d one.tim'
benefcent principle may easily, 81
to speak, be run in the ground" Al
social necessity has required com
bination to take the place Of chaotic
competition, "trustsY have been
formed regardless OF opposing laws
but Mr. Perkins plea That the peo
Pie through their government abdi
cate control OF business il gro
tesque and absurd He proposes
Federation supervision which tends
toward eradication Of competition
and hence ultimate monopoly"
But who will control the monopoly