The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-07-20

have been told by a great many
men that the idea ] have. that by re-
storing competition you can restore
Industrial freedom. Ia based upon q
tngs OF the las decades In this coun-
try; because. they say. II Is just free
competition that has made II possible
for the big to crush tbs little.
reply. II In not free competition
tina has done that: II In Illicit compe-
titicn. Il Is com petition OF the kind
that the law ought to stop. and can
Eop-this crushing of the little man.
You know, of course. how the little
man is crushed by the trusts He gets
4 local market, The big concerns
come IN and undersell hin IN his To-
cal market. and that In the only mar
ket he has; IL he canno make q pro-
AT there, he Is killed. They can make
a profit all through the rest OF the
Union, while they r undertaking
INN in his locality, and r~ecouptnE
themselves by what they can earn
elsewhere. Thus their competitors
a be put out of business. one by
one, wherever they dare to show a
head. Inakmuch as they rise up only
one by one, these big can
sse 10 II that new competitors
come into the larger field. You have
to begin somewhere. You can't be-
gin in epace. You can't begin In an
airship. You have got TO begin in
some community. Your market has
got to be your ~neighbors first and
those WHIT know you there. But un-
les you have unlimited capital (Which
Of course you wouldn't have when you
vsre be~irning) or unlimited credit
(Which these gentlemen can see 20
Il that you shan't Eet). they car kin
p1,, zns ~ =. fa~Di Yrlnykn4 a nv TINA
they try, on the same basis exactly
as that on which they beat organized
la Dor: for they can sell at a loss in
your market because they are selling
at a profit everywhere else, and they
cas- recoup the losses by which they
beat you by the profits which they
make in fields where they have beaten
other fellows and put them out II
ever a competitor who by good luck
has plenty of money does break into
the wider market. rhen the trust has
TO buy him out. paying three or four
times what the business ia worth
Following such a purchase. It has got
TO pay the interest on the price 1t has
paid for the business, and Il has got
to tax the whole people OF the United
States. in order to pay the interest
on what 1t borrowed to do that, or
on the stocks and bonds it issued to
do IL with. Therefore h big trusts.
the big combinations. are the most
wastefui. the most uneconomical. ana,
after they pass a certain size. the
most inefficient, way OF conducting the
Industries of this country.
A notable example Is the ray in
which Mr., Carnegie was bought OUT
Of the steel business Mr.. Carnegie
could build better mills and make bet
ter steel rails and make them cheaper
than anybody else connected with
what afterward became the United
States Steel corporation. They didn'
de re leave him outside. He had ~
much more brains IN finding out ths
best processes; he had 80 much more
sh-ewdness in surrounding himself
with the most successful assistants,
he knew so we'll when a young mar
who came into his employ was At fol-
promotion and was ripe to put at the
head of some branch of his business
and was sure to make good that HI
could underseil every mothers son OF
thnrn In the market for steel rails
And they bought him out at a price
that amounted to three or % times-
] believe actually five times-the es'
tirnated value OF his properties and o,
rs business, because they couidp't
beat him in competition. And then ir
what they charged afterward for theil
product-the product Of his mills in
cluded-they made us pay the Inter
est on the our or hve times h diff
Se,ence
That is the difference between a bis
business and a trust. : A trust Is ar