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The Commoner
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with every branch of production, organization
may increase cfllcloncy, but when Iho organiza
tion becomes bo largo that tho man at tho head
has to give directions to a handful of superin
tendents, and thoy instruct a still larger num
ber, and these oversco a still 'greater group, and
these direct tho workmen, there is a waste of
onorgy which at last overcome tho gain.
Second, whon a monopoly is really securod, in
ventive genius is retarded instead of encour
aged, and dotorloration In tho quality of goods
is almost sure to accompany an lncroaso in tho
price. Tho solflshness that inspires ono to de
siro a monopoly is not cured when the monopoly
is securod On tho contrary, tho possession of
tho power which tho monopoly gives is moro
likely to Increase tho selfishness, and this sel
fishness manifests itself in tho tendency to put
forth an inferior product anfr charge moro for
it. Senator Bovoridgo has eulogized tho meat
trust, and expresses regret that my "state's
rights doctrines" prevented my suggesting the
. pure food law, to tho passage of which the sen
ator gave so much valuable assistance. My
.attention had not been called to tho packing
house abuses until tho bill was introduced, but
I havo boon glad to commend the bill and the
principle upon which it is based. The senator
is so fearful of the doctrine of stato's rights
that he reads it into tho speech of every oppo
nent, and goes beyond tho friends of that doc
trine in extending its application. The trouble
about tho attempt to regulate the packing
houses Is that wo are treating the symptom
rather than tho disease, It will be difficult to
prevent deterioration in tho product as long as
wo permit a monopoly; for when effective com
petition is stifled regulation becomes not only
moro necessary but more difficult. "While tho
pure food law is good as far as it goes, the peo
ple will find a hundred times more protection in
the elimination of the monopoly principle than
they can find in any system which first permits
a monopoly to exist and then attempts to regu
late it. The third fallacy in tho assumption
that a monopoly is an economic development
is found in the fact that individual initiative
Is discouraged. There is a wide difference be
tween a manufacturing establishment which a
man has built up. by his own exertions and
which he regards and guards as his own crea
tion a groat deal of difference between this
and a great corporation presided over by some
man whose Interest 1b measured by his salary
arid who recognizes that ho may be at any time
replaced by the son or tho son-in-law of the
controlling, stockholder. Competition compels
the employment of the best men, while monop
oly permits the employment of favorites, though
Inferior; for when a corporation has control of
the market, it can wait for trade to come to it
No one can estimate the widespread demoraliza
tion which monopolies would bring if permitted
to exist, for in depriving the ambitious worker
of the hope of an independent position in the
industrial world, they would paralyze effort and
largely reduce the productive power of the
American workmen.
It is not necessary that one corporation, or
s,. -group of corporations, should pack all the
,meat in order to havo good meat furnished to
the country; neither is a monopoly necessary in
or,ler Jnvade foreign markets. In a country
with eighty millions of people, it is not neces
sary that one corporation should manufacture
lor the entire population in order to reduce the
cost of production to a minimum. The market
is large enough to support a number of packinc
plants, each large enough to introduce everv
possible economy in production and yet con
trolled and regulated by competition among
themselves. It. is a common practice of trust
defenders to attribute every reduction in price
and every improvement in method to the trust
and yet examination will show that reduction
l",!61"6 1" method have be
oiies w"iJ"ui5 luausines uian in monop-
As I shall deal with the railroad nuestioTi
In a later article, 1 need not now refer to whS
ho says on that .subject. wnat
There is a suggestion in tho senator's art.
cle that natural laws will, in the end, protect
the consumer and ho suggests the case? of a wire
5J11 POl which raised the price of nails from
weight10 K and Vl6per h?n2
weight. Ho assures us, however thnt !
eighteen months this foolish iJSlSew maWcS
ment compelled the formation of immense rwEl
companies," and that "in robbing the iJnn?i
destroyed itself." It is probacy n,e that
the trust may; in the long run, break down of
ts own weight,1 out there is little conStion
inff9 f?Ct to the short-winded man who "SS
not stand a lour run. Tho small competitor
who has been-bankrupted by a trust will in i
Ao comfort iriJJth'o confident expoctat to" r that
eoino years after he has gone oSt of business
natural laws will break up tho trust. The
farmer and builder who have to pay a double
price for nails for eighteen months may be glad
to believe that the trust will after a while
die; but ought wo to pormit such practices and
leave tho purchasers unprotected?. There are
a great many trusts today, and while a truBt
dies occasionally, tho birth rate is greater than
tho death rate, and it is criminal folly to post
pone effective legislation in tho hope that the
trust will at last find that it is unwise to charge
moro than a fair profit,
Ono of the trusts which seems to have im
pressed the senator favorably .Is the steel trust.
He has much to say of Its usefulness and noth
ing to say of its abuse of power. The steel
trust is selling abroad cheaper than at home,
and we have seen its stock so manipulated by
a coterie of insiders that the small stockholders
lost many millions in the fluctuations of the
stock. The recent annual statement of the steel
company shows that its gross sales amounted to
nearly seven hundred million -dollars, that its
net earnings amounted to one hundred and i
fifty-six million dollars, and that the wages
paid amounted to one hundred and forty
seven million dollars. The net earnings were
about twenty-three per cent of the gross sales
nearly five times the percentage that the boot
and shoe industry of Massachusetts realizes.
There being competition among the manufac
turers of boots and shoes it is impossible for.
them to convert into net earnings twenty-three
per cent of their gross sales. It will be noticed
that the net earnings of the steel company ex
ceed the entire amount paid in wages that is,
each empjoye earns, on an average, not only his
own wages, but more than one hundred per
cent profit on his wages for his employer. This
is an extraordinary profit, and only possible
under a monopoly. In most of our large in
dustries the amount paid in wages is several
times as great as the net earnings. In the rem
edies suggested, Senator Beverldge does not
mention a reduction of the tariff, although he
tells of one of the beneficiaries of the tariff
who turned his property into a trust "at a figure
so much above its value as to stagger belief,"
and yet this steel trust, which 'receives from
him only woris of praise, has a protection of
something like twice the per cent paid to em
ployes as wages, or more than forty per cent,
while the employes received only twenty-one
per cent of the gross sales.
The steel trust has such a complete control
of several branches of the iron, business that
it can fix the terms and conditions of sale its
smaller competitors being compelled to ac
quiesce in any terms that it Axes. The senator
has given President Roosevelt credit for having
prosecuted a number of trusts, and I am glad
to commend him where he has enforced the
law, but it is not sufficient to enforce the law
against a few trusts. Other criminal laws are
enforced against all offenders who can be found
"Why Bhould wo draw a distinction between the
horse-thief who violates the law against horse
stealing and the trust magnate who violates tho
law against the trust? The senator complains
because I have said that the principle of private
monopoly must be eliminated that the trust
must be destroyed, root and branch. That is
my position, and that position set forth in the
democratic national platform of 1900 was in
dorsed by more than six million voters There
is-o question that the people understand the
trust better today than they did six years ago
last fall, and there can be no doubt that thev
are prepared to enforce moro radical remedies
than the senator's party then proposed. Are
they not ready to lay the ax at the root of the
tree and say that no man, or group of nW
shall be permitted to monopolize any branch of
business or the production of any article of,
merchandise? -. oi.
; oooo i
V "GREEK'S BEARING GIFTS" i
Before the democrats shower their praises
upon Senator Knox as defender of the rtetita
of the states, let them carefully re-read the story
of the Trojan Horse, which gave rise to the pro
verb, "Beware of the Greeks bearing gifts " Th
Trojan Horse, it will be remembered, was pre
sented as a gift but it was full of soldiers and
the soldiers came forth at night and wrought
the ruinof tho besieged city.
Senator Knox is supported by .representa
tives of predatory wealth and predatory wealth
opposes all government regulation. The local
representatives of the great corporations spend
the r time showing that all state regulation is
an interference with inter-state commerce, while
tho national representatives of these same cor
porations are employed to denounce national
regulation as an infringement upon the reserved
rights of the states. The object of predatory
volume 7, Dumber 25
wealth-is to assail. every sort of restraint. At
present it looks as if Senator Knox is the man
selected, by the railroads and trusts to protect
them from federal prosecution and he is likely
to become quite popular ith those papers which
got their inspiration from Wall Street. He will
use the president's gushing endorsement of his
cabinet work to win the support of those repub
licans who shout for "some one in harmony
with President Roosevelt" but DO NOT NAME
HIM, while he can .count on the support of
every corporation that has its hands in the pock
ets of the people and, therefore, wants to "let
well enough ulone; --
ThQ democrats believe in protecting the
rights of the states, but -they will not bo de!
ceiyed by the effort now being made to use the
states right doctrine as a breast work for the
trusts when these trusts are attacked, by con-?r?Ss-
Deniocrats believe that the powers of
h,$h Btate and the federal governments
should be used for the protection of the people
men who engineer the JCnox boom are opposed
to governmental restraint whether that restraint
is exercised by the state or by the nation.. -
OOOO '
ANOTHER ORATOR'
Another orator, Marclline, Albert,- has
'arisen. This time it is Prance that produces the
man with persuasive tongue. Like all other
orators he is the product of his environment;
he is the voice of his people and simply gives
expression to their sense of justice. Seeing what
ne regarded as a great wrong he went from vil
lage to village awakening the people to tho
dangers which confronted them. Seven years
ago he began his agitation and, gradually grow
ing in influence, as the vine growers recognized
the truth embodied in his arguments he became
the leader of those whose cause he was plead
ing. He was eloquent because he knew his
subject and felt that he had a message that
must be delivered. .
Those who are ambitious to win distinc
a0,? Publlc speaking can find a lesson in
Albert s career and it 1s a more valuable les
son .than can be obtained in the schools of ora
tory. The man who attaches himself to a just
cause and studies it until his mind is filled with
argument and his heart is aflame with earnest-ness--such
a man will not lack for hearers. -And,
It may be added, our own -country and our
own generation present causes enough to grow a
large army of orators if our young men will for
get themselves in their devotion to the common
we.al.
O, for a crop of American Alberts who, see
ing the menace of plutocracy, will become the
champions of a democracy which will restore the
government to its old foundations, and admin
ister it according to the Jeffersonlan maxim.
Equal rights to all and special privileges to
none1."
OOOO
THE DEMOCRATIC OUTIiQOK
A number of large dallies which oscillate
between the two parties and attempt to dictate
the policy of both, are just now taking a, gloomy
view of democratic prospects. The dismal hue
is due to the facUthat the democratic party
does not seem disposed to allow these papers
to write the platform and select the ticket, and
very naturally the papers are hopeless. These
are-the same papers which three years ago
conducted a conservative campaign, rejoiced
over a conservative victory at St. Louis, gave
advice to the party during the campaign, and
prophesied certain victory just before the over
whelming defeat. They are 'now laying the
foundation for a bolt in case they are not al
lowed to dominate the party's counsels, but
the memory of their leadership is so fresh in .
the minds of the people that their ability to
deceive is reduced to a minimum,
x ?h? Ja,ct is 'lhat democratic prospects, in
stead of being gloomy are bright, and growing
brighter. The democratic position has been
yintficated as shown by events, and second, by
the admission of republicans. Every proposi
Soar W qh the democratic party stood in
1896 has been proved sound, and not a, republi-
S iSSSXbuJ Is wea? er today than lt was then,
in 1896 the democrats contended that the coun
try needed more money; this was denounced
afa wild and unexcusable theory by sage flnan- -ciers,
and yet, with an increase in money of
more than fifty per cent jper capita we have . "
none too much money now, and the larger
SiV,S0fO mone has Increased' prices and ,..
?SSsht Perity. What would be our Indus- .
tiial condition today if we.-liad.no more money -today
than in 18.96, when the-republicans said .' -.'.
we had enough? . , " - -
. The party's position on the trust auestioa ' V
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