The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-05-01

somewhat by the article in question;
says this particular proprietor: The
keen competition of the big mills with
their immense facilities for turning
out -four has doomed the small institu-
ton and they are gradually disappear
ing. Five years ago there were 132
mills in this state and today there are
less than %"
The growth Of the mail order bust,
ness may we'll make the small mer.
chant tremble for the safety of his
business. for competition ends in mon.
opoly as surely as daylight ends in
darkness. And to continue the meta.
phor monopoly ends in the cooperation
Of socialism as surely as darkness
ends in daylight. For there must come
an end to the oppression, starvation
and degradation that results from a
private monopoly of the mean of
existence.
When the great aggregatiOns Of cap.
ital find no more profitable invest
ment than the retail trade the small
merchant will 90 to the wall as the
small mill owners have gone
As a matter of fact every business
will grayitate to it's center /. e.. the
largest aggregation Of capital that
handles any particular line and for,
tunate is he whose means Of main
tenance is not swept away in the pro-
cess; for every trust has strewn many
financial wrecks on its route TO domin-
ance.
The trusts as labor savers and
cheapeners Of the production Of the
things We all use or want, has come to
stay. The penalizing Of an individual
here and there can not ~abrogate a law
OF economic development. 1t is true
that the interruptions persons who
break every law moral or legal to
facilitate that end, may hasten the
process: and anti trust laws could
they be enforced) might retard it, but
ultimately it is bound to prevail. They
may be dissolved but their stocks go
up after the process, and according to
Judge GrOsscup ii is practically i'm.
possible to convict a millionaire, and
a federal Judge ought to know. The
only road left open for the people is
to own the trusts in order "TO pro-
mote the general welfare" Let the
whole people benefit by the trust in
stead of the privileged few. The trusts
are all right for the people who own
them, but are all wrong for the people
who must swell their profits. Ameun-
ger happily illustrates this by the auto
mobile which makes every thing man
or beast, jump sideways when it meets
them, but it is all right for those in
the automobile. The moral is. get into
the inside. There is no valid reason
why with plenty of raw material God
given in greatest abundance" that
poverty or over work or enforced idle
ness should exist in this country.
There could be plenty Of work, plenty
of the things that work applied to the
natural resources brings; and plenty
of leisure for culture and recreation,
If we were all on the inside Of the
trusts instead Of the outside. And there
is nothing that stands in the way of
this consummation devoutly to be
wished" but the prejudice, ignorance
or apathy of the people who work and
support these trusts for they (the
noble people, are in the majority and
this is constitutionally a democratic
government; and the ballot executes
a freeman's will. AS lightning does
the will of God" Alice B. Loomis.