The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-08-08

even When We can get them, yield US no
great comfort We used to be better off
with less, because a dollar could buy so
much more. The majority of us have
been disturbed to find ourselves growing
poorer, even though our earnings were
slowly increasing. Prices climb faster
than we can push our earnings up,
moreover, we begin to preceive some
things about the movement of prices that
concern us very deeply, and fix our at
tentlon upon the tariff schedules with
more definite determination than ever to
get to the bottom of this matter. We
nave been looking into it, at trials held
under the Sherman Act and investiga-
tons IN the committee rooms of congress,
Where men who wanted to know the real
Iacts have been busy with inquiry; and
we begln to see very clearly what at
Least some OF the methods are by which
prices are nXed. We know that they are
not liked by the competitions of the
market, or by the ancient law Of supply
ana demand which is to be found stated
in all the primers of economics. but by
private arrangements w:th regard to what
the supply should be and agreements
among the producers themselves. Those
why buy are not even represented by
COUNSEL The high cost of living is ar
ranged by private understanding.
We naturally ask ourselves, how did
things? Who handed our economic laws
over to them for legislative and contrac-
tual alteration? We have in these dis
closures still another view of the tariff,
sun another proof that, not the people
of the United States but only very small
number of them have been partners in
that legislation. Those few have learned
/ how to control tariff Legislation and as
| they have perfected their control they
| have consolidated their interests. Men
| OF the same interest have drawn together
nave united their enterprises and have
| formed trusts; and trusts can control
| prices. Up to a certain point (and only
! UP to certain point great combinations
| effect great economies in administration,
1Nin =iy1 nj
| perfectlng organization; but whether
! they effect economies or not, they can
| very easily determine prices by intimate
| agreement, so soon as they come to con-
! troll sufficient percentage of the product
| in any great line Of business; and we
| now know that they do.
| TRUSTS GIVEN OPPORTUNITY.
lar, am not drawing up an Indictment
| history of such tariffs as are now con-
| trived, as it is the natural history of all
! other governmental favors and Of all
| licenses to use the government to help
! certain groups of individuals along in
! life. Nobody in particular, I suppose,
| is to blame, and I am not interested just
now IN blaming anybody; I am simply
| trying to point out what the situation is,
| in order to suggest what there is for us
! to do, if we would serve the country as
| a whole. The fact is, that the trusts
| have been formed. have gained all but
| complete control Of the larger enterprises
| OF the country, have fixed prices and
| fixed them high so that profits might
! be rolled up that were thoroughly worth
| Rhile and that the tariff, with it's arti-
| fetal projections and stimulations gave
| them the opportunity to do these things,
and has safeguarded them in that oppor-
| tunity.
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 lundeveloped, the young nation
| struggling to find itself and get upon it's
feet amidst older and more experienced
| competitors. They bGong to very re-
cent and very sophisticated age. when
men knew what they wanted and knew
how to get It by the favor of the govern
ment. 1t is another chapter in the nat
ural history of power and of governing
classes" The next chapter will set US
free again. There wifi be no flavor of
tragedy in It 1t viii be a chapter Of re-
adjustment, not of pain and rough dis
turbance. It will witness a turning back
from what is abnormal to what is nor
NAL. It will see a restoration of the
laws of trade, which are the laws Of COM
petition and of unhampered opportunity,
under which men of every sort are set
free and encouraged to enrich the Ma
ton.
am not one of those who think that
competition can be established by law
against the drift of a worldwide econo-
mic tendency; neither an I one Of those
who believe that business done upon
great scale by single organization
necessarily dangerous to the liberties,
even the economic liberties. Of a great
people like our own, fun Of intelligence
: and Of indomitable energy. I am not
/ afraid of anything that Is normal. I
dare say we shall never return to the
: | old order Of individual competition and
a great scale of cooperation is, UP to a
certain point, itself normal and newt
able.
NOT NECESSARILY DANGEROUS.
? Power in the hands Of reat business
men does not make me aprehensive un-
less 1t springs out of advantages which
: they have not created FIR themselves.
, Big business is not dangepus because 1t
is big, but because its oigness is an
unwholesome imitation Grated by privi-
leges and exemptions whih 1t ought not
to enjoy. While competition cannot be
created by statutory enactment 1t can In
J | large measure be revived " changing the
laws and forbidding the practices that
killed 1t, and by enactins laws that will
give It heart and occasion again. We
: can arrest and prever monopoly. It
! has assumed new shaes and adopted
new processes in our the, but these are
now being disclosed ad can be dealt
with.
The general terms ofthe present fed
Z eral antitrust law, forlddtng "combina-
lions in restraint Of rade" have ap-
parently proved ineffectaL Trusts have
! grown up under its banvery luXuriantly.
: and have pursued the rethods by which
= so many Of them have stablfshed virtual
I monopolies without sepus let or him
Z drance. 1t has roared gainst them like
J any sucking dove. I N not assessing
the responsibility, I ar merely stating
. the fact. But the meas and methods
!. by which trusts have established monopo.
lies have now become known. 1t will
be necessary to suppleIent the present
. law with such laws, bot civil and crimi-
: nal, as will effectually punish and pre-
. vent those methods, aiding such other
laws as may be necetary to provide
! suitable and adequate t1icial processes,
! whether civil or crimlal. to disclose |
: them and follow them Toinal verdict and
) Judgment. They must b specifically and
! directly met by law as icy develop.
But the problem and he difficulty are
much greater than that There are not
: merely great trusts ad combinations
which are to be controAd and deprived
= Of their power to Great monopoltes and
! destroy rivals; there is onething bigger
: stiu than they are and pre subtle, more
evasive, more difieuli to deal with.
There are vast confedecies Gas may
perhaps call them for he sake Of con-
venience) Of banks. always. express
| companies. insurance mpanies, manu-
: featuring corporations. mining corpora
D tiOns. power and develcment companies
. and all the rest Of thecircle, bound to-
( gsther by the fact tn. the ownership |
g I Of their stock and the lerberS OF their