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The Commoner
VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2
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tested by oxporionco, but assuming that our
'present law Is sufficient, or will bo made suf-
ciont, and assuming that its enforcement will bo
'all that could bo desired, it will not sottlo tho
trust question. There are many other trusts.
Secrecy is tho fourth evil, and this, too, "wo
havo ended," if the senator's language can bo
acceptod at par, Publicity Is not an end in
itsolf; It is only a moans to an-end, The collect
ing of proof is a necessary part of a prosecution,
but Jt is not tho only part. Wo could not safely
repeal tho law against theft -and simply require
an accurate record to bo made of the goods stol
on. It is of little value to know how much wo
havo lodt unless this knowledge enables us to se
cure tho return of it or affords soma protection
against future loss. Tho statement of tho
United States Steel company to which I have
already roforrod gives us information as to how
much tho people havo suffered from the monop
oly which it has obtained, but this knowledge
has not yet secured us relief from its extortions,
and Senator Bovoridge, with all his good inten
tions and these I most willingly concede has
no plan tjiat roaches tho 'steel trust.
. - Overcapitalization is evil number five, and
on this the senator leads us frOm history to
"hope with tho promiso "we will end that, and
are working on it now." He is, however, em
barrassed by the fact that ho exaggerates tho
innoconco of the purchaser of watered stock.
He regards it as unjust to squeeze the water
J)ut of stock already sold, and endeavors to
Illustrate this injustice by putting me in tho
position of a purchaser of watered stock. Ho .
' has done me honor over much in thus admitting
me to the fellowship of his business friends, for
I am not the owner of any watered stock, or
stock of any kind, in industrial enterprises, and
if I were the owner of any watered stock I
would not plead ray own interest as a defense
in opposition to a law reducing our corporations
to .an honest basis. A man does not buy stock
under compulsion. It is a voluntary transaction,
and he Is able to find out upon inquiry whether
tho stock rests Upon money Invested or upon tho
corporation's power to exploit the public by
moans of monopoly. In the balancing of equities
we give the, greatest consideration to tho one
who is least able to protect himself, and as' be
tween tho 'patron who must buy of a monopoly
and the stockholder who voluntarily enters into
a conspiracy against the public,1 the equities ate'
with the patron. Is it fair that the entire pur
chasing public shall be victimized permanently
because a comparatively few persons havo
bought watered stock, when by a little inquiry
they could have ascertained the character of tho
stock?
4 The remedy that thejicenfce system pro
posed in the democratic national platform of
1900 offers a means of squeezing the water out
of tho -stock of overcapitalized corporations and
Sfi reYntlng overcapitalization in the future.
While the states can, if they will, prevent over
capitalization, it is not necessary for the peonlo
of the country at large to remain passive if a
few .states find a profit in the creation of preda
tory corporations. Under the license system
suggested in the democratic platform! and
i?hVefSrrod.ln my article wh?clf 'appeared
to tho Reader of April, it is possible to
5nn?.ach oration to the state of its origin
hntil it complies with such conditions as- may
4e necessary to protect the public from it. Con
jress has power to regulate interstate commerce,
n?ni,,?n0r thls powE conross justified in
prohibiting a corporation from engaging in in
terstate commerce except ipoh conditions that
make its entrance helpful to tho public rather
than a menace. ttiaer
"Unjust prices" is number six in the senn.
tor's list of trust evils, but he thinks hat the
ending of overcapitalization will cure thlta 7?
part, and he hopes that publicity wn complete
the cure. He approaches tho subject however
Jifft an, Pin mind' and ass if any onT can
think of a better remedy. There is one remeSv
that may contribute to the solution of the S
tion, namely, a law that will make it a nnni
offense for a corporation engaged in inLSi
.commerce to sell in one sectlSn of the S?rv
at a different price from that at which it seSs
in another section, the cost of transnoH
of course, being taken into consideratfon oET
of the most pernicious methods o 'the ? trim? te
to lower prices in one section in order to drive
out a competitorthe price being maintained in
other sections and then, when tlie comnotito?
8 disposed of, restore or raise prices? so that
tho trust makes back all that it has lost S
law has been adopted in some stales and can
be adopted by uio federal' congress. Such T
law would have a salutary influence, but it would
not furnish a complete remedy, for when a trust
tfas a monopoly It can keep prices up everywhere
and raise them if it so desires. The lmportSt
thing is to eliminate tho principle of private
monopoly and restore competition as a control
ling influence in industry.
Senator Beverldge closes his list of evils
with "purchased newspapers and the corruption
of public opinion." Tho only remedy which
ho sees for this is that tho people, by learning
to "know such papers whon thoy see them" can
withdraw thoir support. Tho trouble with this
remedy is that it takes the people 'too long to
find out what papers, are subsidized. The sen
ator is in favor of compelling the packing houses
to stamp the date of the canning upon tho can
in order that the people may know how old tho
meat is. Why not require the newspapers hav
ing any considerable inter-state circulation to
publish the names of their stockholders and tho
names of their mortgagees? No harm could be
done an honeBt paper, and wo need not be tender
about the feelings of a dishonest one. If tho
people knew who owned the papor as stock
holder, or who controlled the paper as mort
gagee, they could tell better what weight to give
to the editorials and how much faith they could
put in the reliability of the news columns: I
am glad that the senator is awake to the evil
influence of the subsidized press, There is a
well-founded suspicion that several of our prom
inent dailies are conducted, not as business en
terprises, but as adjuncts to exploiting corporations.-
The owners use the columns of their
papers to chloroform the readers while the
pockets of the readers are being picked, and tho
people are as much entitled to protection from
the Bubtle poison of these papers as they are
to have "poison" printed on a bottle that con
tains it.
Senator Beveridge has rendered a valuable
public service in his April ' articler for
he has shown how helpless the well-meaning
man is when ho attempts to deal with a great
evil without first grappling with the funda
mental principle involved. Many years ago 1
heard a minister use an illustration which I
have often recalled. He was discussing the
tendency of some people to spend their time in
looking up contradictory passages in Holy Writ
to the ignoring of the fundamental principles
that underlie Christianity, and to make his re
marks more plain, he said: "If you try to pull
a-little tree through a narrow gate, much de
pends upon the way you go about it. If you talce
hold of one of the branches and attempt to pull'
tho trde through in that way, the other
branches will be caught upon the gate posts, and
tho more you pull the more they will spread.
If, however, you pull the trunk of the tree
through the gate first, the branches will be
pressed against the side of the tree, and you will
have no difficulty in taking the tree through
the gate." So in the discussion of any ques
tion, we must first deal with the principle that
controls it, and then the details are easily
handled. The controlling principle in the trust -question
is tb,e principle of private mono"pbly,
and the onlyjway to dea with the trust ques
tion Js to begin with the proposition that a
private monopoly Is indefensible and Intolerable
When we start to consider the question from
this standpoint we find that the difficulties dis
appear, and that, going forward step by step
we shall be able to restore competition where
competition is possible, and competition is pos
sible in all of our industries. There is no neces
sary reason why there should be a monopoly in
production except where there is a limited sup
ply of the thing produced, as in the case of coal
and the president has already suggested a means
of dealing with that, namely, the retaining of
the title in the government. In other words
wherever a monopoly is absolutely necessary
there should be ownership by the public for
the protection of the public, and where monop
oly is not necessary there should be competition
among producers for benefit of the public.
OOOO i
LAWSON'S remedy
In a recent issue of Everybody's Masazlno
Mr. Lawson concludes his series of articles qS
Frenzied Finance and announces that he wm '
follow his exposure of Wall Street's doings with
a series of short stories. He explains tha? lnt
does this to maintain interest in ne Subject
until he is ready to set forth his "remedy!" He
says that the remedy is withheld because the
people are not ready for itthat the phlycol
og leal moment has not arrived. Few will agree
JUmVAe wIsdom of withholding gany
remedy which he has in mind. It would do no
harm to submit it; if it is good the sooner it is
given to the public the better. He must not
expect immediate acceptance and time was?ed
can not bo recovered. He ought to say what
he has to say and trust the people to act upon
his remedy according to its merits. It fa not
certain, however,; that he has actually withheld
the jemedy. ' He Jhtimates that it is to he found
in legislation limiting dividends and preventine
the issue of fictitious stock He gay: - h
"Ergo, if Instead of trying to prevent these
rascals from getting these million, which wo
can never do because by using this vast wealth
they can corrupt people faster than we, without
it, can reform them, let us make it impossiblo
i0L t emJ create tno stocks and bonds without
which thefy can not seize the loot that the re
bate system takes from the people. Does anv
pne suppose that 'Standard Oil' and Harriman
laBt month would haye taken all the risks at
tending the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific
coup, which has brought on their heads a whirl
wind of wrath from the press and the pulpit
if they had not known that they could thus
easily. seize scores of millions' of dollara? if
the law of the land had made it impossiblo for
Standard Oil' and the 'System' to gather mil
1 ons of profit, there would have been no incen
tive for Harriman to take advantage of the tre
mendous business arising out of the great pros
perity of the country, by collecting frojn pas
sengers and freight passing over his roads mil
lions of dollars more than the running expenses
and a fair rate of interest called for. Therefore
when business increased with the country's pros
perity, Harriman would have reduced freleht
and passenger rates and these extra millions
would have remained in the hands of the peoplo
along the line of these two roads."
Both of these. suggestions are good, but they
are not new. Texas has an excellent law regu
lating the issue of stock and it has already been
discussed in connection with the federal regu-
if on f r?ilroadsA The democratic platform
of 1900 endorsed the federal license system as
a remedy for trusts, the license to -be withheld
until necessary conditions were complied with.
The fixing of a maximum dividend would
be an effective remedy, If, in the case of rail
roads, the corporations can be brought down to
an honest basis and limited to reasonable divi
dends the incentive to speculation would be re
moved, or at least greatly reduced, If these are
the remedies upon -which Mr. Lawson depends
he ought to give the public a chance to consider
and' discuss them. . ,j . r f.j.
OOOO
EVADING THE LAW
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A reminder of the "crushing" of the North
ern Securities company is being c given in Ne
braska. The recent legislature enacted a -law
prohibiting brewers from engaging in the retail
ljauor business or renting property owned by
them for saloon purposes. The brewers of the
state owned many saloons which were in the
names of agents acting for them. Now the brew
1 ers are evading the law by organizing "holding
companies" and turning over their real estate
to them. These companies will then do for the
brewers what the brewers did for themselves
before the enactment of the law. -That is tho
way President Roosevelt and Attorney General
Knox busted" the famous merger of the North
ern Pacific, Great Northern and Burlington rail
roads. They brought suit in the United States
courtafter the lgal department of Minnesota
had blazed the way and made national action
imperative- and secured a deolsion dissolving
the merger. The merger dissolved as a merger
but immediately organized as something else,
and whatever that something else is, its results
are just the same as the results of the old
merger. When a striking workingman is en
joined by a federal court he is jailed without a
hearing if he violates the injunction. The trust
magnate is enjoined from doing a certain thing
? av certain aame and straightway proceeds
1 110 , same ,thIng under a different name,
and the legal department of the government
iLl0 IBy boating of its victory that it over
looks the repetition of the offense..
OOOO
RAILROAD MAGNATES PLEASED
, wtTh0se "o r,eeard the present'railroad reg-
Si ?nTi!KiBUfflSe, ought t0 read the letter
which William E. Curtis wrote recently .to tho
Chicago Record-Herald. Ho says that the man
agers of corporations "are becoming reconciled
f.? ?olicy of government control," and
S?ithereufJn alm03t universal approval of
!-1?wpr??Ibltl,lg atef oth among ship
8ff JS5d raiIway managers.'' Ho says that "tho
I f aW managers also declare that they are
SwJ? ree ?as!es are abolished." As to
5wJ?,iSI is no$ stranee that' the railroads
Sfoniv Jfn?1!?863' for they are now slng tho
y n?at they soa t0 P&y to favored ship
pers, of course there, were instances in which
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