The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-02-15
HILL ON COMPETITION.


tween mon for preeminencc aud for en-
lsrgcd business coptrol and manage
ment Of extensive operations will al
! ways be found among mankind. Beyond
doubt. President Hill is absolutely right
| in this. There can he no question but
| that mon Will strive for supremacy, and
that there will he competition to get
| coveted positions of advantage in bust
ness and in finance as well as in poll
tics.
But il Will he noted that This sort
| Of competition which is so strenuous
ly insisted upon by President Hill as
lasting and inherent in human nature,
is quite a different thing from trade
competition as commonly understood.
When people ordinarily speak of com
petition. thcv mean competition in
trade, efforts TO manufacture and sell
products, or TO get advantage IN trade
by offering better bargains, and, in
short, bv holding out advantages TO
the public TO trade at ono place rather
than at another, these chiefly by rca'
son of lower prices and better goods,
That is what is commonly understood
by competition.
The competition which President Hill
speaks of, however, is quite differ
cnt matter It is the effort of one man
or set of men TO get ahead Of another,
to occupy positions of advantage IN
manufacture, trade, or transportation,
This sort Of competition is personal,
and is something in which the general
public has or can have neither share
nor advantage. Invariably in that sort
of competition, the public is the COM
mon victim of both the competitors for
preference. Mr.. Hill, for instance, Will
strive to get a transportation sdvan'
| tage over the Hartman railway sys.
| ten, Lei us say, and will push his eft
| forts In that direction for the purpose
| of strengthening himself and adding
! business to his own transportation lines,
But in this there is not necessarily any
advantage to the public. All through
that sort of competition the under
standing between Mr.. Hill and his OPP
| ponents is that the public shall pay
| for the use of the roads at agreed
prices between the transportation sys'
tens. Just so in the oil business.
| There was strenuous competition in oil
all the time until the Rockefeller IN
tcrests got the supremacy and estab,
| lished the Standard Oil monopoly, and
there will doubtless be competition
continued among the several branches
of that monopolistic holding company
as now separated for control Of the diff.
fcreut companies as they arc organized,
But that will not give to the pub
lie cheaper oil or better oil, 1t is
a competition for personal advan-
| tace or position. with the consumer
not in the least considered by way of
relief. but on the contrary always to
be bled if occasion serves, The same
in the tobacco monopoly, and couspic.
uously in the steel trust, whore there
was n desperate effort, counivcd at
| unla wfully and agreed to unlawfully
by President Roosevelt, to absorb a
rival concern without which the monop-
oily could not be made complete
This sort of competition. as Pres.
sist; it will always bc found. But
| il is the sort Of competition that yields
nothing to the consumer. and in which
the public gets no concessions. SO that
| it is becoming more and more evident
all the time, that when words arc used
| there has to he special Interpretation
Of the meaning of the words TO fit
| the case There is no sort Of doubt
but that competition amouC mankind
will always bc found; but the question
| which interests the public is. what ad.
vantage do the people get out of ths (
competitonl As long as they get no
advantage wha5eyer, as they certainly
get no advantage in the instances cited
it is impossible TO apply President
Hill s remarks in the usual meanipg
OF the word competition. And in 20
limiting his construction of what com.
petition means. President Hill in fact
confirms the very thing which he ap-
pears to deny. That is. he appeared
to deny that competition has ceased
when. in fact. the very argument which
he makes shows that competition in the
ordinary sense has already ceased, and
in his Judgment. will never be revived.
/ Definitions Of terms arc always essen
tial when ono undertakes 10 get at the
real meaning of an explanation or "A
statement such as Mr.. Hill has made,
and getting at the real meaning OF Mr..
| Hill S statement II is shown that, so
FAR from arguing that real competition
will always be found among mankind.
! he altogether abandons that, and
means competition which is some
! thing different. and something with
which the public, being the common
victim Of both the competitors, has no
concern, but only nm apprehension OF