Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1912-08-08

laws Of taxation shall have been trans
formed from system OF government
al patronage into a system OF just and
reasonable charges which shall fall
where they win create the least bur-
den. When we shall have done that,
We can Ok questions Of revenue and OF
business adjustment In anew spirit
and with clear minds. We shall then
be partners with all the business men
OF the country. and day OF freer.
more stable prosperity shall have
dawned
Control Of the Trusts.
The governor spoke OF how recent
Investigations have revealed the con-
nection between the tariff and the
movement OF prices. and this brought
him to the subject of trusts, concern
ing which he said In part:
! am not one OF those who think
that competition can be established
by law against the drift Of world
wide economic tendency; neither am
one OF those who believe that bust
ness done upon a great scale by
single organization-call It corpora
ton. or what you Willis necessarily
dangerous I'd the liberties. even the
economic liberties, Of great people
like our own. full OF intelligence and
Of indomitable energy. ] 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
upon a great scale OF cooperation is,
up to certain point. itself normal and
inevitable.
Power in the hands of great busi-
ness men does not make me apprehen-
sive, unless 1t springs out Of advan-
tages which they have not created for
themselves. Big business is not dan
gerous because 1t is big, but because
its bigness is an unwholesome infia-
tion created by privileges and exemp-
tions which 1t ought not to enjoy.
While competition cannot be created
by statutory enactment, 1t can tn1arge
measure be revived by changing the
laws and forbidding the practices that
killed 1t, and by enacting laws that
will give 1t heart and occasion again.
We can arrest and prevent monopoly.
1t has assumed new shapes and adopt
ed new processes in our time, but
these are now being disclosed and can
be dealt with.
Concentration Of Credit.
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 las l may perhaps
call them for the sake Of convenience
of banks, railways, express compa-
MES. insurance companies, lmanufac-
turing corporations, mining corpora
lions, power and development COM
panies and all the rest Of the circle,
bound together by the fact that the
ownership Of their stock and the
members Of their boards of directors
are controlled and determined by COM
paratively small and closely inter
related groups Of persons who. by
their informal confederacy, may con-
troll, II they please and when they
will, both credit and enterprise.
There is nothing illegal about these
confederacies, so far as l can per
ceive. They have come about very
naturally, generally without plan or
elaboration, rather because there
was 90 much money to be invested
and 1t was in the hands, at great
financial centers. of men acquainted
with one another and intimately as
ISOLATED in business, than because
anyone had conceived and was carry.
ing out a plan of general control;
but they are none the less potent
force in our economic and financial
system on that account. They are
part of our problem. Their very ex-
istence gives rise to the suspicion of
money trust" concentration Of
Tie COuLTOl VI GICuAL WAANh AAoJ a. 0AS
time become infinitely dangerous to
free enterprise. If such concentra-
ton and control does not actually ex-
list 1t Is evident that 1t can easily be
set up and used at will. Laws must
be devised which will prevent this. If
laws can be worked out by fair and
free counsel that will accomplish that
result without destroying or serious
ly embarrassing any sound or legiti-
mate business undertaking or neces-
sary and wholesome arrangement.
Question Of Conservation.
OF conservation and allied matters
Governor Wilson said:
do not know any greater question
than that of conservation. We have
been a spendthritt nation and must
now husband what we have left. We
must do more than that. We must
develop, as we'll as preserve. our wa