The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1912-08-08

| iusSStlkdtiOHS nave TcFSs+ Gu thc w.
nection between the tariff and the
movement OF prices. and this brough'
him to the subject OF trusts. concern
| ing which he said in part:
! am not one OF those who think
that competition can be established
by law against the drift OF worlo'
wide economic tendency; neither am
/ one of those who believe that fusi'
ness done upon a great scale oy
single organization--call It corpora
ton, or what you Willis necessarily
dangerous to tAe liberties. even the
economic liberties. Of great people
like our own. full OF intelligence and
OF indomitable energy. am not
afraid of anything that Is normal.
dare say We shall never return to the
old order OF individual competition
and that the organization OF business
upon great scale OF cooperation is'
up to a certain point. itself normal and
inevitable.
Power In the hands OF great busi-
ness men does not make me apprehen-
sive. unless 1t springs out OF advan-
tages which they have not created for
themselves. Big business is not dan
gerous because 1t is big. bat because
It's bigness Is an unwholesome infia-
ton created by privileges and exemp-
tons which 1t ought not to enjoy.
While competition cannot be created
by statutory enactment, 1t can in large
measure be revived by changing the
laws and forbidding the practices that
killed it. and by enacting laws that
will give 1t heart and occasion again.
We can arrest and prevent monopoly.
1t has assumed new shapes and adopt
ed new processes in our time, but
these are now being disclosed and can
be dealt with.
Concentration of Credit.
But the problem and the difficulty
are much greater than that. There
are not merely great trusts and com.
binations which are to be controlled
and deprived OF their power to create
monopolies and destroy rivals; there
is something bigger still than they
are and more subtle, more evasive.
more difficult to deal with. There are
vast confederacies (as may perhaps
call them for the sake of convenience
OF banks, railways. express compa-
MES insurance companies, manufac-
turing corporations, mining corpora
tons. power and development COM
panies and all the rest of the circle.
bound together by the fact that the
ownership Of their stock and the
members OF their boards OF directors
are controlled and determined by COM
paratively small and closely inter
related groups Of persons who, by
their informal confederacy may con-
troll II they please and when they
will, both credit and enterprise
There is nothing illegal about these
confederacies, so far as / can per
ceive. They have come about very
naturally, generally without plan or
deliberation. rather because there
was so much money to be invested
and 1t was in the hands. at great
financial centers. Of men acquainted
with one another and intimately as
SO cated in business, than because
anyone had conceived and was carry
ing out plan of general control;
but they are none the less potent a
force In our economic and financial
system on that account. They are
part of our problem. Their very ex.
istence gives rise to the suspicion of
a money trust" a concentration OF
the control Of credit which may at any
time become infinitely dangerous to
free enterprise. II such concentre-
ton and control does not actually ex.
list. it is evident that 1t can easily be
set up and used at will Laws must
be devised which will prevent this, If
laws can be worked out by fair and
free counsel that will accomplish that
result without destroying or serious
ly embarrassing any sound or legiti-
mate business undertaking or neces'
sary and wholesome arrangement
Question 81 Conservation.
or conservation and allied matters
Governor Wilson said:
do not know any greater question
han that of conservation. We have
been a spendthrift nation and must
now husband what we have left We
must do more than that We must
develop. as well as preserve, our va.
Ter powers and must add great wa.
terways to the transportation faclH.
les OF the nation. to supplement the
within our borders as we'll
rs upon the Isthmus We must revive
our merchant marine, too, and fill the |
seas again with our own fleets We
must add to our present postoffice
service Il parcels post as complete as
hat of any other nation We must |
ook to the health OF our people upon
every hand, as well as hearten them
with justice and opportunity.
With regard to the development of |
greater and more numerous water |
Ways and the building up of a mer-
chant marine, We must follow great |
lines and not fall back |
ipon the cheap device of bounties and |
subsidies. In the case of the Missis- |
'ippi river, that great central artery |
IF our trade, 1t is plain that the fed |
'ral government must build and main |
ain the levees and keep the great |
waters In harnes for the general use. |
t Is plain, too, that vast sums OF |
money must be spent to develop new |,
waterways where trade will be most |
ierved and transportation most read |
ly cheapened by them. Such expen.
iitures are no largess on the part of !,
md nearly every shopkeeper in the 4,