Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-08-07

tees should be made up only Of their
friends until the country In its turn
grew suspicious and wondered how
those committees were being guided
and controlled, by what influences and
plans Of personal advantage. Govern
ment cannot be wholesornely conduct
ed IN such an atmosphere. Its very
honesty is in jeopardy.
For what has the result been?
Prosperity? Yes, If by prosperity you
mean vast wealth, no matter how dis
tributed, or whether distributed at all,
or not; II you mean vast enterprises
built up to be presently concentrated
under the control Of comparatively
small bodies Of men. who can deter
mine almost at pleasure whether there
shall be competition or not The nation
as a nation has grown immensely rich
But what OF the other side of the pic
ture? It is not as easy for US to live
as II used TO be. Our money will not
buy as much. High wages. even
when we can get them, yield Us no
great comfort.
Moreover. we begin to perceive some
things about the movement Of prices
that concern us very deeply and fix our
attention upon the tariff schedules with
a more definite determination than
ever to get to the bottom OF this mat
ter. We have been looking into II at
trials held under the Sherman act and
In Investigations in the committee
rooms of congress, where men who
g. h.
been busy with inquiry, and we begin
to see very clearly what at least some
OF the methods are by which prices
are fixed. We know that they are not
fixed by the competitions Of the mar
ket or by the ancient law OF supply and
demand, which is to be found stated In
all the primers Of economics, but by
private arrangements with regard TO
what the supply should be and agree
ments among the producers themselves.
Those who buy are not even represent
ed by counsel. The high cost Of living
is arranged by private understanding.
We naturally ask ourselves. How did
these gentlemen get control Of these
things? Who handed our economic
laws over to them for legislative and
contractual alteration? We have in
these disclosures still another view OF
the tariff, still another proof that not
the people Of the United States, but
only very small number of them,
have been partners in that legislation.
The trusts do not belong to the peri
cd of infant industries. They are not
the products of the time, that old la
borious time, when the great CONT
nent We live on was undeveloped, the
young nation struggling to find itself
and get upon its feet amidst older and
more experienced competitors. They
belong to a very recent and very So
phisticated age, when men knew what
they wanted and knew how to get 1t
by the favor Of the government. 1t
is another chapter in the natural his
tory Of power and of governing
classes" The next chapter will set us
free again.
/ am not one Of those who think
that competition can he established by
law against the drift of world wide
economic tendency; neither am 1 one
OF those who believe that business
done upon a great scale by a single
Organizat iOn-call it corporation or
what you willis necessarily danger
GUS to the liberties. even the economic
liberties, of a great people like our
own, full of Intelligence and Of in
dOmitable energy. l am not afraid of
anything that is normal l dare say
VIZ chan n tho old nrHor
of individual competition and that the
organization Of business upon great
scale Of cooperation is, up to a certain
point. itself normal and inevitable.
SHERMAN LAW AMENDMENTS.
Power in the hands of great bust
ness men does not make me appre-
hensive unless 1t springs out Of ad-
! vantages which they have not created
/ for themselves. Big business Is not
/ dangerous because it is big, but be-
/ cause its bigness is an unwholesome
/ imitation created by privileges and ex-
/ emptions which it ought not TO enjoy.
! The general terms Of the present
| federal antitrust law, fOrbidding
combinations in restraint of trade
] nave pl'NCo
! Trusts have grown up under its ban
very luxuriantly and have pursued
the methods by which so many of
them have established virtual monop-
/ olIes without serious let or hindrance.
1t has roared against them like any
sucking dove. i am not assessing the
responsibility; am merely stating the
fact. But the means and methods by
which trusts have established monop.
olies have now become known. II Will
be necessary to supplement the pres,
ent law with such laws, both civil and
criminal as will effectually punish and
prevent those methods, adding such
other laws as may be necessary to
provide suitable and adequate judicial
processes, whether civil or criminal
TO disclose them and follow them to
final verdict and judgment.
But the problem and the difficulty
are much greater than that There
are not merely great trusts and com.
binatiOns which are 10 be controlled
and deprived Of their power TO create
nOnopolies and destroy rivals There
Is something bigger still than they are
and more subtle, more eTasive, more
difficult TO deal with. There are vast
confederacies (es | may perhaps cal
them for the sake Of convenience oil
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