The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-08-08


eminent. 1t Is another chapter N the
natural history of power and of gov
erning classes" The next chapter
will set us free again. There will he
no flavor Of tragedy In II. II Will be
| a chapter OF readjustment, not OF pain
and rough disturbance. II will wit
ross a turning back from what is alb
normal TO what Is normal. II VIII see
q restoration Of the laws of 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 oy
law against the drift OF a Worldwide
economic tendency: neither am one
of those who believe that business
done upon great scale by a singl"
organization--call It corporation, or
what you willis necessarily danger
Gus 70 the liberties even the economic
liberties, OF a great people like our
own, full Of intelligence and OF indomi~
table energy. I am not afraid of
anything that liz normal. ! dare say
we shall never return to the old order
of Individual competition. and Tint the
orga MIA ton OF business upon a great
scale of cooperation is, up to a ceF-
tain point, itself normal and incVita-
bic
Power in the hands Of great business
men does not make me spprehensive,
unless it springs out of advantages
which they have not created for them
selves. Big business is not dangerous
because il is big. but because its hie-
ness Is an unwholesome imitation cre-
ated by privileges and exemptions
which IT ought not to enjoy. While
competition cannot be created by stat
utory enactment, II can in large meas
ure be revived by changing the laws
and forbidding the practices that Killed
1t, and by enacting laws that will give
ii heart and occasion again. We can
arrest and prevent monopoly 1t has
assumed new shapes and adopted new
processes in our time. but these are
now being disclosed and can be dealt
with.
Antitrust law Intellectual.
The general terms OF the present
federal antitrust law, torbidding
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 monopo-
lies without serious let or hindrance
It has roared against them like any
sucking dove. | am not assessing the
responsibility. l am merely stating the
fact But the means and methods by
which trusts have established mo
nopolies have now become known. 1t
will be necessary to supplement the
present law with such laws. both civil
and criminal as will efrectually pun
ish and prevent those methods, adding
such other laws as may be necessary
II uttjt Ia 10 rA
judicial processes, whether civil or
criminal, to disclose them and fol-
low them to final verdict and judg-
ment They must be specifically and
directly met by law as they develop
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 their boards OF directors are CON
trolled and determined by compare
lively small and closely inter-relsted
groups of persons who, by their in
formal confederacy, may control If
they please and when they will, both
credit and enterprise. There is moth
ing Illegal about these confederacies,
so far Az / can perceive. They have
come about very naturally, generally
without plan or elaboration, rather
because there was so much money to
he Invested and II was in the hands,
at great financial centers. OF men ac
quainted with one another and init
ruateiy associated in business. thon
because anyone had conceived and
was carrying out n plan Of general
control; but they are none the less
potent force in our economic and
financial syHten on that account. They
are part Of our problem. Their very
existence gives rise to the suspicion
of a |mOney tFftst-" 81 concentration
Of the control OF credit which may at
any time become infinitely dangerous
to free enterprise. II such concen-
tration and control does not actually
exist, 1t is evident that ii can easily
ne set up ana uSeu AZ 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 seriously
embarrassing any sound or legitimate
business undertaking or necessary and
wholesome arrangement.
Not Seeking Destruction.
Let me say again. that what we
are seeking Is not destruction Of any
kind nor the disruption OF any sound
or honest thing, but merely the rule
Of right and OF the common advan-
tage. 7 am happy to say that a new
spirit has begun to show itself in the
last year or two among influential
men of business, and, what is perhaps
even more significant. among the law
yers who are their expert advisers;
and that this spirit has displayed it
self very notably In the last few
months in an effort to return. in some
degree at any rate, to the practices
of genuine competition. Only very
little while ago our men OF business
were united in resisting every pro
posal of change and reform AS an at
tack on business. an embarrassment
TO all large enterprise, an irtina-
ton that settled ideas Of property
were to be set aside and a new and
strange order OF things created out Of
hand While they thought in that
way progress seemed Impossible with
out hot contest and bitter clash be
tween interests, almost q war of
classes Common counsel scented all
but hopeless. because some OF the