The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-06

practices. We will not submit to that
KIND OF prosperity any more than we
VIII submit to prosperity obtained by
sw1ndling investors or getting unfair
advantages over business rivals. But
1t is obvious that unless the business is
prosperous the wage workers employ
ed therein will be badly paid and the
consumers badly served. Therefore
not merely as a matter of justice to
the business man, but from the stand
point of the self interest of the wage
| worker and the consumer we desire
| that business shall prosper; but it
should be so supervised as to make
| prosperity also take the shape of good
wages to the wage worker and reason
| able prices to the consumer, while in
vestors and business rivals are insured
| just treatment, and the farmer, the
man who tills the SOIL is protected as
| sedulously as the wage worker him
self.
| Unfortunately, those dealing with
| the subject have tended to divide into
| two camps, each as unwise as the 9TH
| er. One camp has fixed its eyes only
| on the need of prosperity, loudly an
| nouncing that our attention must be
| confined to securing it in bulk, and
that the division must be left to take
| care of itself. This is merely the plan,
already tested and found wanting, of
| giving prosperity to the big men on
| top, and trusting to their mercy to let
something leak through to the mass
of their countrymen below-which,. in
| effect, means that there shall be no
attempt to regulate the ferocious
scramble in which greed and cunning
| reap the largest rewards The other
set has fixed its eyes purely on the in
| justices of distribution, emitting all
consideration of the need of having
| something to distribute, and advocates
| action which, it is true, would abolish
| most of the inequalities of the distri-
/ button of prosperity, but only by the
| unfortunately simple process of abol-
| ishing the prosperity itself. This
means merely that conditions are to
4 he mr. hIit that
| all shall stand on a common level.
| where nobody has any prosperity at
i all. The task of the wise radical must
| be to refuse to be misled by either set
of false advisers; he must both favor
and promote the agencies that make
for prosperity, and at the same time
see to it that these agencies are so used
as to be primarily of service to the |
average man.
Again and again while I was presi- |
dent, from 1902 to 1908, I pointed |
out that under the antitrust law alone |
lit was neither possible to put a stop |
to business abuses nor possible to Sc
cure the highest efficiency in the SER
vice rendered by business to the gen.
eraI public. The antitrust law must |
be kept on our statute books, and, as
hereafter shown, must be rendered |
more effective in the cases where it
is applied. But to treat the anti
trust law as an adequate, by |
itself wise measure of relief and |
IS d sigh IOI Ol progress,
but of toryism and reaction. 1t has
been of benefit so far as it has i'm
piled the recognition of a real and |
great evil, and the at least sporadic
application of the principle that all
men alike must obey the law. But as
a sole remedy, universally applicable,
it has in actual practice completely
broken down; as now applied it works
more mischief than benefit. 1t repre-
sents the waste of effort-aIways dam
a mn MI ~ cI,
from the attempt to meet new condi-
tions by the application of outworn
remedies instead of fearlessly and in
common sense fashion facing the new
conditions and devising the new rene
dies which alone can work effective
ly for good. The antitrust law if |
interpreted as the Baltimore platform
demands it shall be interpreted would
apply to every agency by which not
merely industrial but agricultural
business is carried on in this coun-
try; under such an Interpretation it |
ought in theory to be applied univer-
sally, in which case practically all
industries would stop; as a matter of
fact, it is utterly out of the cues
ton to enforce it universally; and,
when enforced sporadically, it causes
continual unrest, puts the country at |
a disadvantage with its trade COM
petitorS in international commerce,
hopelessly puzzles honest business
men and honest farmers as to what
their rights are, and yet, as has just
been shown in the cases of the Stand
ard Oil and the Tobacco Trust it is
no real check on the great trusts at
which it was in theory aimed, and in
deed. operates to their benefit. More ]
over, if we are to compete with other
nations in the markets Of the world
as we'll as to develop eur own ma
terial civilization at home, we must
utilize those forms of Industrial or {
ganization that are. indispensable to
An important volume entitled Con i
centration and Control has just been t
issued by President Charles r. Van I
Eise, of the University of Wisconsin. I
The University of Wisconsin has been I
m ore influential than any other agency I
in making Wisconsin what it has be- {
come, a laboratory for wise social and I
industrial experiment in the betterment t
OF conditions. President Van Hise is /
one of those thoroughgoing but sane c
and intelligent radicals from whom r
much of leadership is to be expected in j
such a matter. The subtitle of his S
book shows that his endeavor is to turn t
the attention of his countrymen toward r
practically solving the trust problem Of r
the United States. In his preface he h
states that his aim is to suggest way t
to gain the economic advantages of the il
of industry, and at the t
ga me time to guard the interests of the | t
public and to assist in the rule of en- t
lightenment, reason, fair play, mutual L
and federation. In sum, v
he shows that unrestrained competition q
as an economic principle has become {
too destructive to be permitted to exist | r
and that the small men must be al t
lowed to cooperate under penalty of Y
succumbing before their big competi- C
tors; and yet such cooperation, vitality e
WEIGH YOURSELF BEFORE USING