Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-21
QUESTION OF MONOPOLY.
Why Are These Business Enterprises
Allowed to Grow.

There seems to ne a strong tendency
to find an easy way out of the diff
Guilty caused by permitting these in
dustrial monopolies to grow up I'M
restrained until they have become
deeply rooted by letting them live and
flourish under the supervision and
guidance of the government. BY the
same token the forming of new
|menopoies in any business would be
|allowed in conformity with rules to be
laid down by law and under this same
supervision and guidance. until the
great mass OF business operations
would be conducted on "hig scale"
under the tute1age of a commission
which would need all the wisdom of a
universal board of directors 1t is
doubtful ii anything OF the kind would
be considered inevitable if combina
tiens like the Standard Oil and to-
bacco trusts had never been permitted
To grow up in n particular business
and bind its parts into an inextricable
tangle. Ii it We're presented as a
new question that competition should
be crushed by monopoly and the gov
ernment should prescribe rules for it
and see that they were adhered to by
those directing the huge business. the
proposal would probably he received
with something like horror.
Was there anything in the nature of
the business of converting the tobacco
plant into the various forms that are
supposed to minister delight to man"
fifteen years ago that made it in
|evitable that the business should he
ny nnnDliya1 ~ hot
of purveying to other wants of man
kind. for instance in food or clothing :"
Was there any moro necessity for
|monopolizing petroleum and its
products than any other means of sup
plying fuel or light? Enterprise and
capital in a growing industry will by
sllillful management build up large
establishments and give increased
power to competitive forces. Is il
necessary that those forces should
destroy each other until only one sur
wives? is the only alternative a com
bination Of the stronger forces into one
complex organization. wedding ont the
weak and absorbing the healthy until
all competition is suppressed? Is it
inevitable to have monopolies created
by this process, as if it We're a prede-
termined evolution, and then To have
the government take them in charge to
prevent them from devouring the sub
stance Of the people?
1t may be questioned whether those
who set out to monopoiize the tobacco
business were Instruments in the
hands Of Providence or units of force
and matter yielding TO the currents of
evolution as they gradually crushed
ont competition, inflated their capital,
swelled their profits and had producers
of material and consumers of products
at their mercy. They planned and
worked from motives of greed to get
Ian the business into concentrated
lcontrol for their profit and not for the
advantage of industry and trade. They
did it because the way seemed to be
open to them when the law that
should have barred the way was not
put in force. A fair competition. a
competition regulated by compelling
compliance with law which protects
Ian rights and insures equal justice
would have attained as large results
with more widely diffused advantage
There are industries that prosper I'M
der competitive conditions and there
are none that may not prosper under
them by submitting to rules of justice
and fair dealing. Shall these rules be
given up because they have been yio
lated? Shall offenders against them
be taken in charge by the government
and directed by a commission. or shall
| they be required to cease from Of
| Tending and allow others an equal
chance i'm industry and trade New
York Journal of Commerce.
|