T"
The Commoner.
FEBRUARY 7, 1008
3
' '-
- ar.
$ !
IM
itself Increased, for while the rate remained the
.me, the purchasing power of the annual Inter
it. crow. And so also, with railroad rates. A
jlxed rate per ton or a passenger rate of three
cents per mile became more and more to the rall
TojwI ami o.nst nmrfi and more to the shipper or
traveler. In like manner ofllcial salaries though
got increased in amount, became Heavier upon
(those who through taxation paid tno salaries.
Stlnce prices have been rising the reverse has
,oeen true, anu utc iixuu uiaii," " ""J wt
debt, interest, rates and salaries have been more
JEfoUv tin Id. If a chance in the volume of the
money is made deliberately and intentionally,
iT 1 t tl . .nn11 unnintintK1fl frit
tiiose wno matte u ure uiuiuwy iwiiuhdiuiv wi
Satire iniustice done and tlioy must ue prepared
ftBT show that, all things considered, tne cnange
teecurcs a larger measure of justice, or a nearer
'Approximation to justice.
H I have not mentioned" the subject for the
Burnose of criticising those who have endeavored
IT -. . . . .... i o .. t-Ucn Ttrlii
iio enlarge nic votume cu curruuty "i tuuo
Save endeavored to contract it; I have referred
h ihi matter merely to show that tlirougli
ponotary legislation it is possible to take money
from one man and give it to another, and it
fellows that unless this legislation is based upon
Sound arguments and the laws made in the in-
ifcrests of justice, the taking may not onty uu
rongful but the injury very great.
I Tim irlnjil monetary SVStfctn would be 0110
B5 which the purchasing power of the dollar
jSmaincd the same yesterday, today ana ior
2! tiioti hnsinoss ronld be done upon a level
Inlnnn nnrl tin nilO WOllld HeCUTC that legislative
J Advantage which, whether it be great or small,
iT. necessarily attendant upon a change in the
Sfxrnmirr nn rr iiinsincr nower of the dollar. In
iTann himntnllists contended that an enlarge
ment of the volume of the currency was neces
iary to protect society from the effect of falling
trices, an effect recognized Dy an civinxua uuuu-
Una in Hto vjirimiR International conferences
ghat were held.. It was admitted that in the re-
&4-n,.nflnn nP Tifmotnllism there. WOUld be in
stances of individual injustice, but it was con
tended that the restoration of a just level ol
prices would on the whole promote justice.
.Those who at that time derended tailing prices
and complained of bimetallism are today using
ihiP nrtrnmfintK of bimetallists and pointing out
tthe fact that the dollar which rises in value, like
'k dollar which falls in value, brings injustice
,.to some.
t aureiy in tne constueruuuu ui &u jjih .
'fliihWt jir tiint of money care should be exer
cised to reduce to the minimum the injustice
done and to increase to the maximum the stabil
ity of the dollar as a measure of the value of all
other property. ,
! The subject of private monopoly turnisnes
ins another illustration of larceny, and here it
i nnt np.Ht. inre.e.nv nor even grand larceny: it
;rises to the proportions of a glorious larceny
not only because of the amount taiten, out ue
!miirp nf the. resnGctability of those who received
rthe stolen goods. The object of a private mono
poly is to control the price ot tne tning soiu.
It is to corner the market. The theory is that
man's necessities require him to buy certain
things which sustain his life and add to his
comfort. Where there is competition the sellers
bid against each other and the purchaser is able
to secure what he needs at a price which is ap
proximately fair. If, however, all of the vendors
can be brought together in a combination so
that all purchasers must buy of the same ven
dor, competition is eliminated and the man who
fixes the price, fixes it arbitrarily, and we know
enough of human nature to know that he is
apt to charge all that the traffic will bear. To
Illustrate this point, let us suppose a city in
the midst of a desert whose people derive their
water supply from a single spring. All must
have water, and they must have it no matter
at what cost. If the one spring to which all
must go is owned by an individual and ho is
permitted to charge what he will for water,
he is sure to prosper as long as there is any
money in the city. This is an imaginary case.
Tt nnnnnt. be real because the instinct of self-
L preservation is so strong that people would not
it nM'mff tVo Tirntor cnnnlv nf n. oMv tn hA. In the
.JCI lino l " ".v Jll'J w- --rf - -"
hands of one man with no regulation as to the
price to be charged. In the cities which permit
private corporations to control the water plants
there is always provision for regulation of the
price. I need only present the case of a real
monopoly to show how intolerable it is. A
monopoly is as abhorrent to the public as a
vacuum is to nature, and yet, we have-allowed
monopolies to grow up in this country which do
far more injustice and reap a larger profit from
the injustice than the owner of the spring would
In the supposed city in the desert, and these
monopolies are tolerated only because the people
are less informed about their methods and their
influence.
I insist that the commandment "Thou shnlt
not steal" applies as much to the monopolist
as to the highwayman, and we shall not make
any national progress in tho protect ion of the
people from private monopolies until wo aro pro
pared to obliterate tho line that society has
drawn between the ordinary thief and tho larger
criminal who holds up society and plunders I ho
public through tho instrumentality of private
monopoly. The man who stands by the wayside
and holding a revolver to your head demands
your money or your life is no more a criminal
measured by every moral standard than the man
who, "obtaining control of a nation's fuel, col
lects a tribute from every householder, offering
him tho alternative of paymont or suffering from
lack of fire. I have mentioned a monopoly in
fuel, but a monopoly in light, in food cr in
any other necessary of life is just as repugnant
to the moral sense. It is entirely possible that
very many of those who enjoy the benefits of
monopoly some as managers, some as directors
and some merely as stockholders aro uncon
scious of the principle Involved unconscious of
the moral character of their conduct, but surely
this is an opportune time to impress upon the
conscience of the nation the real moral character
of the conduct of tho monopolist.
And it is not sufficient tl at wo shall appeal
to the conscience of the monopolist alone. Tf a
highwayman were to engage a lawyer to follow
a few rods behind him with a horse that ho
might have a ready means of escape after having
committed an act of robbery, wo would call the
lawyer a party to the crime and we would visit
upon him the same punishment visited upon the
principal in the robbery; and so if someone living
near the spot where the robbery was committed
furnished the robber with a change of clothing
or in return for a part of tho booty
conspired with him to conceal the booty
until suspicion was past, such a one could not
escape legal responsibility for tho crime, and yet,
it is considered quite respectable today for the
legal representatives of predatory wealth to visit
state capitals and national capitals and prevent
the enactment of laws Intended to protect the
public from private monopolies, and it is even
more respectable for the salaried attorneys of
these monopolies to follow close after tho of
fenders and furnish them horses in the way of
legal technicalities upon which to escape from
punishment. And some of our metropolitan
papers are in the same class with the unscrupu
lous lawyer. Is it not time to raise the moral
standard and to insist that our laws shall be
made for the enforcement of human rights and
not for the protection of those who violate these
rights? Shall we continue to be horrified at
housebreaking and the picking of one's pocket
and yet view complacently and without concern
these million dollar raids upon the earnings of
the entire population? Surely we are justified
in applying to the trust question the command
ment "Thou shalt not steal!"
And will I be entering upon forbidden
ground If I question the moral character of
those financial transactions which have resulted
in the issuing of watered stock and fictitious
capitalization? The individual cannot circulate
his note unless the purchaser believes that he
has back of it sufficient property to insure the
payment of the note, but there is a presump
tion in favor of stock Issued by a corporation.
People assume that Industrial stocks represent
their face value. If a company Is formed with
a capital of a hundred millions, the investors
assume that that much money has been invested
in plants and in business, and dividends are
expected upon that basis, but this supposition
has been abused and the people have been im
posed upon. All sorts of devices have been
employed to give to the stock the appearance
of genuineness. Eminent financiers underwrite
the bonds issued by the corporation or subscribe
for large blocks of stock and thus lend their
names to the schemes for the exploitation of
tho public. A few years ago it was found that
one of the high officials in a prominent New
York bank was connected with a company which
was inflating the value of certain stocks by
what is known as washed sales; that is, by the
selling and re-selling of stocks among a group
of men for the deception of the public, and
when the matter was made public, the bank
official seemed unconscious of the moral turpi
tude involved in the transaction. Stock which
does not represent money invested cannot be
raised to its face value by honest or legitimate
means, and those who palm off spurious se
curities upon the market may make more money
by such transactions but they show no more
conscience in their transaction than tho horso
trador who doc loin up a worth loss animal and
by concealing hi defect sell him to some un
wary purchaser. I hope I nhall not bo thought
guilty of impropriety in suggesting that the
commandments which aro binding upon the rout
of tho world ought not to be suspended In tho
region of Wall Street. If wo were able to make
an exact calculation of tho amount of money
taken from an unsuspecting public each year
by the issue of stocks and bonds known to be
worth less than tho amount for which they aro
sold, we would probably find that tho total
amount of money stolon In this way is larger
than the amount stolen In a single year by all
of tho criminals who have been sent to tho
penitentiary during tho year for petit or grand
larceny.
Kvon in tho fixing of rates (not to speak of
discriminations and rebates) railroads and franchise-holding
corporations may bo guilty of an
extortion bordering on theft. Those quasi public
corporations are under obligations to furnish
an adequate service at a reasonable rate and any
thing In excess of a reasonable rate Is simply so
much taken without right from those who are
the victims of tho extortion.
And now, at tho risk of being accused of
sacrilege I venliiro to Introduce to the stock
exchange-the commandment viilch wo have
been 'considering. I am aware that here in Now
York the stock oxchango Is regarded with
a certain amount of veneration and that
many who vehemently denounce gambling In a
back room whore winnings and losses aro small,
romain strangoly silent In tho presence of the
enormous gains that aro played upon tho stock
market, often with loaded dice. Gambling Is
one of tho worst of vices, and gambling
in stocks and In farm products Is tho
most destructive form In which tho vice appears.
Measured by the number of suicides caused by
the New York stock exchange, Monte Carlo
is an innocont pleasure resort by compari
son. Measured by the amount of money chang
ing hands, the contrast is still greater in favor
of Monte Carlo, and measured by the Influence
upon those who do not gamble, the evils of
Monte Carlo aro insignificant when compared
with the evils of New' York's commercial
gambling houses. The New York stock exchange
has graduated more embezzlers than Fagln's
school did thieves. When a group of men gamble
at a wheel of fortune or at 'a game of cards,
tho injury done is confined to them and to
those Immediately dependent upon them, but
those who gamble In tho grain pit or on tho
floor of the stock oxchango deal In commodities
or securities in which eighty millions of people
aro directly or Indirectly Interested. Farm pro
ducts aro juggled up or juggled down, stocks
aro boosted by the bulls or deprcsRcd by tho
bears, and the whole country feels the effect.
The natural laws of supply and demand ought
to regulate prices but these laws are entirely
suspended when a few men can by their bets add
millions of dollars to the market value of ono
product or take millions of dollars from the
value of another product. After a crusade which
convulsed a stale and at last Impressed' the
thought of the nation, we got rid of the Louisi
ana lottery and then wo congratulated ourselves
upon our virtue. The men in charge of the lot
tery never did a tithe of tho harm that tho grain
gamblers and tho stock gamblers of New York do
every day, nor did they ever exercise anything
like the corrupting Influence over politics. It has
been asserted without denial that 99 per cent
of the New York purchases and sales of stock
and of produce are merely bets upon the market
value vIth no Intention on the pari of the vendor
to deliver or on the part of the purchaser to re
ceive. This is not business; It is not commerce;
it is not speculation; it ' common, vulgar gamb
ling, and when to the ordinary chances that the
gambler takes aro added tho extraordinary
chances duo to the secret manipulation of the
market by those who are on th Inside, the stock
market becomes worse than the honestly con
ducted gambling resort. If a man takes a
chance upon a wheel of fortune, he knows just
what his chance Is, and he knows that tho
owner of the wheel has a percentage of chances
in his favor, but when a stranger gambles upon
the stock or grain market, he Is at tho mercy
of those who, by obtaining control of the visible
supply, can destroy every natural law or busi
ness r.ule which tho outsider knows. While the
laws of each state and tho laws of the nation
should prevent, as far as laws can, the use of
these commercial activities for gambling pur
poses, there must be back of the law an edu
cated public opinion, and I beg the spiritual
advisors of our great cities to consider whether
they cannot advance religion as well as morality