Evening star., 1932-09-24


busting was forced to work out a diff
ference between good trusts and bad
trusts. The Supreme Court set forth
the famous rule of reason by which
it seems to have meant that a con-
centration Of industrial power was
permissible If the method by which 1t
got its power, and the use it made of
that power, was reasonable.
woodrow Wilson, elected in 1912,
saw the situation more clearly. Where
Jefferson had feared the encroachment
OF political power on the lives Of indi-
Viduals, Wilson knew that the new
power was financial. He saw, in the
highly centralized economic system, the
deSpot OF the twentieth century, on whom
great masses of individuals relied for
their safety and their livelihood, and
whose irresponsibility and greed Gf it
were not controlled) would reduce them
to starvation and penury.
'The concentration of financial pow
er had not proceeded as far in 1912
as it has today but it had grown far
enough for Mr.. Wilson to realize fully
its implications. 1t is interesting, now
to read his speeches. What is called
radical today land I have reason to
know whereof ] speak, is mild COM
mo man can deny he said, that
the lines Of endeavor have more and
more narrowed and stiffened; no man
who knows anything about the develop
ment of industry In this country can
have failed to observe that the larger
kinds of credit are more and more
difficult to CJtain unless you obtain
them upon terms of uniting your ef-
forts with those who already control
the industry Of the country, and nobody
can fail to observe that every man
who tries to set himself up in compett-
tion with any process of manufacture
which has taken place under the con-
troll of large combinations of capital
will presently find himself either
squeezed out or obliged to sell and al
low himself to be absorbed Had there
been no World War-had Mr.. Wilson
been able to devote eight years to do
meStic instead of to international af-
fairs-we might have had a wholly Diff
ferent situation at the present time
However, the then distant roar of Euro
pean cannon, growing ever louder,
forced him to abandon the study of
this issue. The problem he saw so
clearly is left with us as legacy; and
no one of us on either side of the po-
lltlcal controversy can deny that it is a
matter of grave concern to the Gov
ernment.
"Only a Drab Living"
"a glance at the situation TODAY only
too clearly indicates that equality of
opportunity as We have known 1t no
Longer exists. Our industrial plant is
built; the problem just now is whether
under existing conditions it is not over
built. Our last frontier has long since
been reached, and there is practically
no more free land. More than half of
our people do not live on the farms or
on lands and cannot derive a living
by cultivating their own property.
There is no safety valve in the form
OF a Western prairie to which those
thrown out of work by the Eastern
economic machines can go for a new
start. We are not able to invite the
immigration from Europe to share our
endless plenty. We are now providing
a drab living for our own people.
Our system of constantly rising
tariffs has at last reacted against us
to the point of closing our Canadian
frontier on the north, our European
markets on the east, many of our
Latin American markets to the south
and goodly proportion of our Pacific
markets on the west, through the re-
taliatory tariffs of those countries. It
has forced many of our great industrial
institutions who exported their surplus
production to such countries to estab-
llSh plants in such countries, within
the tariff walls. This has resulted in
the reduction of the operation of their
American plants and opportunity for
employment
Just as freedom to farm has ceased.
so also the opportunity in business has
narrowed. 1t still is true that men can
start small enterprises, trusting to ma
tive shreWdness and ability to keep
abreast of competitors: but area after
area has been pre-empted altogether
by the great corporations, and even in
the fields which still have no great con-
Germs the small man starts under
handicap.
The unfeeling statistics of the past
three decades show that the inde-
pendent business man is running a los
ing race. Perhaps he is forced to the
wall: perhaps he cannot command
credit; perhaps he is squeezed out
IN Mr.. Wilson's words, by highly or
ganized corporate competitors, as your
corner grocery man can tell you. Re-
Gently careful study was made Of the
States
1T showed that our economic life
was dominated by some six hundred
odd corporations who controlled two
thirds of American industry. Ten mil
lion small business men divided the
other third. More striking still. it ap-
peared that If the process of concen-
tration goes on at the same rate, at
the end of another century we shall
have all American industry controlled
by dozen corporations, and run by
perhaps hundred men. Put plainly.
We are steering a steady course toward
economic oligarchy, If we are not there
already.
Wants Reappraisal Of Values.
CLEARLY, all this calls for reap
praisal of values. A mere builder of
more industrial plants, a creator of
more railroad systems, an organizer Of
more corporations, IS as likely to be a
danger as help. The day of the
great promoter or the financial titan,
to whom We granted anything if only
he would build, or develop, is over.
Our task now is not discovery or ex-
ploitation of natural resources or neces-
sarily producing more goods.
"It is the soberer, less dramatic
business OF administering resources ana
plants already in hand. of seeking to
re-establish foreign markets for our sur
plus production, of meeting the prob
lem of under-consumption. of adjust
ing production to consumption. of dis
tributing wealth and products more
equitably, Of adapting existing economic
organizations to the service of the peo-
pie The day of enlightened admins
tration has come.
Just as in older times the central
government was first haven of refuge
and then threat. SO now in closer
economic system the central and am
bilious financial unit is no longer q
servant of national desire, but danger.
I would draw the parallel one step
farther. We did not think because ma
tional government had become threat
in the eighteenth century that there
fore we should abandon the principle Of
national government. Nor today should
we abandon the principle of strong eco
nomic units, called corporations, merely
because their power is susceptible of
easy abuse. In other times We dealt