Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-08-07

| years particularly the finance commit
tee Of the s~enate). They have insist
| ed very a~nxiously that these commit
tees should be made up only of their
friends" until the country in its turn
grew suspicious and wondered how
those committees were being guided
and controlled, by what Influences and
plans Of personal advantage. Govern
ment cannot be wholesomely conduct
ed In such an atmosphere. Its very
honesty is In jeopardy.
For what has the result been?
Prosperity? Yes, II by prosperity you
mean vast wealth, no matter how dis
trlbuted, or whether distributed Mt all,
or not; II you mean vast enterprises
built up to be presently concentrated
under the control of comparatively
small bodies OF men, who can deter
mine almost at pleasure whether there
shall be competition or not. The nation
as a nation has grown immensely rich.
But what Of the other side Of the pic
turef 1t Ia not as easy for us to live
as It used to be. Our money will not
buy as much. High wages, even
when we can get them, yield us no
great comfort.
Tariff Causes High Prices.
Moreover, we begin TO perceive some
] things about the movement of prices
that concern US very deeply and fix our
attention upon the tariff schedules with
q more definite determination than
fever to get to the bottom Of this mat
Fter. We have been looking into 1t at
trials held rsder the Sherman act and
In Investigations in the committee
rooms OF congress, where men who
wanted to know the real facts have
been busy with inquiry, AID we begin
to see very clearly what at least some
Of the methods are by which prices
are fixed. We tnow that they are Dot
fixed by the competitions Of the mar
kst or by the ancient law of supply and
demand, which IL 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 themselves.
Those who buy are not even represent
ed by counsel. The high cost Of living
Is arranged by private understanding.
We naturally nsk ourselves, How did
these gentlemen get control Of these
thingsf Who handed u economic
laws over to them for legislative and
co~ntractuaI alteration? We have In
these disclosures still another view Of
the tariff, still another proof that not
the people of the United States, but
only a very small number Of them,
have been partners in that legislation.
The trusts do not belong to the peri
cd of infant industries. They are not
the products of the time, that old la.
borious time, when the great CONT
nent we live on was undeveloped, the
young nation struggling to find itself
and get upon its feet amidst older and
more experienced competitors. They
belong to a very recent and very So
phisticated age, when men knew what
they wanted and knew how to get it
by the favor of the government. II
is another chapter In the natural his
tory Of power and of governing
classes" The next chapter will set us
free again.
l am not one of those who think
that competition can be established by
law against the drift of a world wide
economic tendency; neither am I n
Of those who believe that business
done upon a great scale by a single
organization-call it corporation or
what you willis necessarily danger
Gus to the liberties, even the economic
liberties, Of a great people Ike our
own, full of intelligence and Of In
domitable energy. I am not afraid OF
anything that Is normal. l 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 a certain
point, itself normal and inevitable.
Sherman Law Amendments.
Power in the hands of great busf-
ness men does not make me appre-
hensive, unless 1t springs out OF adj
vantages which they have not created
for themselves. Big business Is not
dangerous because 1t is big, but be-
cause llS DlSltSS Is an IN hoiCooi'O
imitation created by privileges and ex-
emptions which it ought not to enjoy.
The general terms of the present
federal. antitrust law, forbidding
combinations In restraint of trade"
have apparently proved Intellectual.
Trusts have grown up under It's ban
very l%uxuriantly and have pursued
the methods by which so many OF
them have established virtual monop-
olies without serious let or hindrance.
1t has roared against them like any
sucking dove. | am not assessing the
responsibility; I am merely stating the
fact. But the means and methods by
which trusts have established monop-
Giles have now become known. 1t Will
be necessary to supplement the pres
emf law with such laws, both civil and
criminal, as will effectually punish and
prevent those methods, adding such
other laws as may be necessary to
provide suitable and adequate judicial
processes, whether civil or criminal,
to disclose them and follow them to
final verdict and judgment.
But the problem and the difficulty
are much greater than that. There
are not merely great trusts n com
binations which are to be controlled
and deprived of their power to create