Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1912-08-08

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 it
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.
l am not one Of those who think
that colnpetiti. II can lie established by
law againSt thn diff Of world wide
economic tendency: neither am I one
of those who believe that business
done upon great scale by a single
organiZation-cau it corporation or
what you willis necessarily danger
Gus to the liberties. even the economic
liberties, of Il great people like our
own. full Of intelligence and of in
dOmitable energy. | am not afraid of
! anything that IS normal I dare say
we shall never return to the old order
of individual competition and that the
organization of business upon Il great
scale of cooperation is. up to Il 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 it 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 hi@neSS is an unWhOleSOme
imitation created by privileges and ex-
emptiOns which it ought not to enjoy.
federal antitrust law, forbidding
combinations in restraint of trade"
have apparently proved Intellectual.
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.
sucking dove | 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. 1t 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 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 tas | may perhaps call
them for the sake of convenience of
banks, railways, express companies,
insurance companies. manufacturing
corporations, mining corporations,
power and development companies
and all the rest of the circle, bound
together by the fact that the owner
ship of their stock and the members of
heir boards of directors are controlled
and determined by comparatively
small and closely interrelated groups
Of persons who by their informal con
federacy, may control. if they please
and when they WILL both credit and
enterprise. They are part of our prob
lem. Their very existence gives rise
to the suspicion of n money trust" a
concentration of the control of credit
which may Mt any time become in
tinitely dangerous to free enterprise.
If such a concentration and control
do not actually exist it Is evident
that they can easily he set up and used
ut will. Laws must he devised which
will prevent this, if laws can he work
ed out by fair and free counsel that
will accomplish that result without
destroying or seriously embarrassing
any sound or legitimate business UNI
dertaking or necessary and wholesome
arrangement
The Labor Question.
Let me say again that what we are
seeking is not destruction of any kind
nor the disruption of any sound or hon
est thing, but merely the rule of right
and of the common advantage ! am
happy 10 say that new spirit has be
gun to show itself in the last year or
two among influential men of business
and, what is perhaps even more Siguin-
can't among the lawyers who are their