Imperial Valley press., 1912-08-08

prices that concern us very deeply.
and fix our attention upon the tariff
schedules with a more definite deter
mination than ever 10 get at the bot
tom OF this matter. We have been
looking into IL. at trials held under
the Sherman act and in investiga-
tions I'm the committee rooms of con-
gress. where men who wanted to know
the real facts have been busy with
! inquiry: and we begin TO see very
clearly what at least some of the
methods are by which prices are fixed
/ We know that they are not fixed by
/ the competitions of the market, or by
| the ancient law of supply and de
mand which is to be found stated in
| all the primers of economics. but by
| private arrangements with regard TO
what the supply should be and agree.
ments among the producers them
I selves. Those who buy are not even
represented by counsel. The high
cost of living is arranged by private
understanding.
The trusts do not belong to the
period of infant industries They are
laborious time, when the great conti-
nent we live on was undeveloped, the
young nation struggling to find itself
and get upon its feet amid older and
more experienced competitors. They
belong to very recent and sophisti-
Gated age, when men knew what they
wanted and knew how to get it by
the favor of the government 1t is an
other chapter in the natural history
of power and of governing classes. -
| The next chapter will set us free
! again. There will be no flavor of
tragedy in it. 1t will be a chapter of
readJustment, not of pain and rough
disturbance. 1t will witness a turn
ing back from what is abnormal TO
what is normal. 1t will see a restor-
alton of the laws of trade. which are
the laws of competition and of un-
hampered 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
by law against the drift of world
wide economic tendency: neither am
| one of those who believe that bus
mess done upon great scale by a
single organiZatiOn-call it corpora
ton. or what you willis necessarily
dangerous to the liberties, even the
economic liberties, of a great people
Ike our own, full of intelligence and
OF lndomitable 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 tho nj 90
upon great scale OF cooperation is.
up to certain point, itself normal
and inevitable.
The general terms OF the present
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-
olles without serious let or hindrance.
II mas roared against them like any
sucking dove. | am not assessing the
responsibility. 1t am merely stating
The TACT But the means and meth
ods by which trusts have established
monopolles have now become known.
II VIII be necessary to supplement
the present law with such laws. both
civil and criminal, as will effectually
punish aud prevent those methods.
adding such other laws as NAV be ne
cessary TO provide suitable and ade.
quate judicial processes, whether civil
OF criminal, to disclose them and fol-
low them to final verdict and jude
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 conveniencp)
OF banks, railways, express companies.
insurance companies. manufacturing
corporations, mining corporations,
power and development cOmDanies
ana all the rest of the circle. bound
together by the fact that the owner
snip OF their stock and the members
OF their boards of directors are CON
trolied and determined by compare
lively small and closely interrelated
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 as | can perceive. They have
come about very naturally, generally
without plan or deliberatlon, rather
because there was so much money 20
be invested and it was in the hands.
ar great financial centers, of men ac-
quainted with one another and init.
mately associated in business, than
because any one had conceived and
was carrying out a plan of general
control: but they are none the less
potent a force in our economic and
financial system on that account. They
are part OF our problem. Their
very existence gives rise to the
suspicion of money trust"
concentration of the control of
credit which may at any time be-
come infinitely dangerous to free en-
terprise. If such a concentration and
control does not actually exist. it is
evident that it can easily be set up
and used at will. Laws must be de-