East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-08-07
OUTLINES PRINCUES IN
SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE
CONTINUED from page five,)

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 econom-
les, but by private arrangements with
regard to what the supply should
be and agreements among the pro-
ducers themselves. Those who buy
are not even represented by counsel.
The high cost of living is arranged
by private understanding.
Trusts.
The trusts do not belong to the
period of infant industries. They are
not the products of the time, that
old laborious time, when the great
continent we live on was undevelope1,
the young nation struggling to find
itself and get upon its feet amidst
older and more experienced cOmpe-
ti;ors. They belong to very recent
and very sophisticated age, when men
knew what they wanted and knew
how to get il by the favor of the
government 1t is another chapter in
the natural history of power and Of
governing classes" The next chap
ter will set US free again. There will
be no flavor of tragedy in it. 1t will
be a chapter Of readjustment, not OF
pain and rough disturbance. 1t will
witness a turning back from What is
abnormal to what is normal. 1t will
Of ~ 10 pf trade
which are the laws of competition and
of unhampered opportunity, under
which men of every sort are set free
and encouraged to enrich the nation.
am not one of those who think
that competition can be established
b. law against the drift Of world
rNiCe economic tendency; neltlet am
Z one Of those who believe that busi-
ness done upon a great scale by a
single organization-call Il CORPORA
tion, or what you willis necessarily
dangerous TO the liberties, even 'he
economic liberties. of a great people
like cur own, full of intelligence and
o. iAdomitable energy. 1 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
rpcn a great scale of cooperation Is,
DIP to a certain point, Itself normal
and inevitable.
Power in the hands of great busi-
ness men does not make me appre-
henslve unless it springs out 0s al
Vantages which they have pol Gre
ated for themselves. Big business Is
not dangerous because it is big, but
because its bigness is an unwholesCme
initiation created by privileges and ex-
empt'ons which it ought not to en-
JOY. While competition cannot be
created by statutory enactment, it
can IN large measure be revived BY
changing the laws and fOrbidding tue
practices that killed it, and by enact
ing laws that will give it heart and
occasion again. We can arrest and
prevent monopoly. 1t has assumed
new shapes and adopted new pro-
cesses in our time. but these are nov
being disclosed and can be dealt
with.
The general terms Of the present
federal antitrust law, forbiddinl
combinations in restraint of trade
have apparently proved Intellectual
Trusts have grown up under its bar
very luXuriantly, and have pursued
the methods by which 50 many o.
them have established virtual mOnOp'
olies without serious let or hindrance
. l. a N
sucking dove. | am not assessing tn,
responsibility, / am merely stating
the fact But the means and meth
ods by which trusts have established
monOpOiles have now become known
IT will be necessary 70 supplement tn,
present law with such laws, both ciyi
and criminal as viii effectually pun
Ish and prevent those methods, ad
ding such other laws as may be nee
essary to provide suitable and ade
quate judicial processes, whether ciyi
or criminal, 10 disclose them and fol
low them 10 final verdict and judg
ment They must be specifically an
directly met b. law as they develop
A Great Problem.
But the problem and the difficult
are much greater than that. Their
are not merely great trusts and com
binations which are to be controlle
and deprived Of their power TO ere
ate monopolies and destroy rivals
there is something bigger still tina
they are and more subtle, more eva
siYe, more difficult to deal witt
There are vast contederacies Gas
may perhaps call them for the SAX
of convenience Of banks, railways
express companies, insurance compa
MES, manufacturing corporation
mining corporations, power and de
velopment companies and all the res
OF the circle, bound together by tn
fact that the ownership Of their stoc
and the members of their boards {
directors are controlled and determin
ed by comparatively small and close
ly inter-related groups of person
who, by their informal confederac!
may control, il they please and whe