The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1912-08-23
What Is Monopoly?

J
journal, that handles all questions
Of a national character in an un-
biased patriotic partisan man
ner:
There is already much said
about monopoly in connection with
the presidential campaign. All of
the parties take fling at it; all
promise to oppose and overthrow
it. 1t is becoming more and more
necessary that the voting public
shall understand what is meant
when the term monopoly" is
used. and more important still is it
that the public shall understand
whether monopoly is something
that ought to be opposed or over
thrown. In a strict sense, there is
but one monopoly in the United
States and that is the United States
government. Government is reces-
sarily monopoly, whether national,
state or local. There cannot be two
governments in operation any
where at the same time unless
there is also revolution, confusion,
disorder, chaos. Speaking in the
larger sense, the United States
government is not only the sole
monopoly in the nation, but the
o | e dispenser of monopolstlc
powers. It's treasury, its judiciary,
its army, its navy, its post office,
are all, and necessarily, monopo-
listic. There is nothing to compare
with any of them in the CONNER
cial world. Many people hope
there may never be. Strange to
say, many people are even now
wishing that there were.
The Standard Oil Company be-
fore its dissolution was not a mon
opoly; the United States Steel
Corporation is not a monopoly;
none of the great trusts is a mon
opoly; no railway in existence,
speaking nationally rather than
sectionally or locally, is monopo-
ly. Competition has never been
wholly eliminated in any CONNER
cial or industrial field, some OF the
greatest of the trusts do less than
SO per cent. of all the business in
their line, A monopoly, properly
speaking, should, like the post
office, do all the business that is
done in its line. Even the express
company combination does not do
this or anything like it.
If the so-called monopolies, then
are not monopolies in fact, do they
dominate industry, tr d e q
finance as if they were and to the
injury of the individual, the firm,
the small producer? Here is where
legitimate argument should begin.
Numerous Investigations have re-
Gently been carried on with the
view of reaching a conclusion on
this point, but thus far without re-
suit. 1t is only fair to say that up
to this time nobody is either
equipped or privileged to pass final
judgment on this question. We are
in a t1ansitory period. The old
order is passing; the new order is
arriving. Competition seems to be
going, monopoly seems to be COM
ing. Thoughtful, earnest d
honest men are undecided as to
whether the ultimate result will be
beneficial or injurious. History is
not clearer on anything than it is
with respect to the worlds move
ment. There can be no reasonable
question that the world is going
forward, not backwards; that its
people are progressing rather than
retrograding, even though they
may be tending away from compe-
tition and toward monopoly. If
monopoly stands for progress-if it
meanss in its best sense, a more
adequate, a more efficient, a more
satisfying service for the mass, as
many believe-then, to make use
of it as campaign cry to alarm
the uniformed and the ignorant is
reprehensible. All the more reason
therefore, why we should all strive
TO understand what monopoly is
and what the result would be if the
monopolistic idea should finally
prevail.