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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 1912)
xyf '?ririrkW' "iW-fffrrprpm' ' y "w-fT V 2 VOLTJiMHf il;, KUMBERy M; : i 'T'Fr$r- ' Br I. BK of the Sherman anti-trust law for a. corporation, to attempt to destroy a competitor by selling at a low and unprofitable price whore it has compe tition, and at an exorbitant price where it has no competition. In what respect is our plan more socialistic than the plan which Mr. Taft indorses? Merely in the fact that ours can be enforced. According to Mr. Taft's logic, a plan is not socialistic which is not effective, but the same would be socialistic if made effoctive. Why should a- corporation supplying twenty millions of people for a corporation controll ing twenty-five per cent of the total product supplies one-fourth, or more, of our population should such a corporation be pormltted to sell at one price in one part of the country and at another price in another part? What reason can a corporation have for such discrimination? Prices are not made as a matter of favorr when a big corporation sells to the people of one sec tion at one price and the people of another sec tion at another price the cost of transportation being tafcen into consideration there ia a reason for it, and in almost every case the reason is to be found in the effort to destToy a competitor One of the most familiar methods of the trust Is to undersell a small competitor in the small competitor's territory the price belnff maintained elsewhere until the small 'competitor Is driven to bankruptcy and then the price is raised. That has been done over and over again. It is open and notorious; and yet, with the republican party in complete power at, Washington,, what effort has been made to pre vent tliis. This remedy, although vehemently denounced by Mr. Taft, will appeal to the aver age man as not only very salutary, but very necessary." THE NEBRASICA LAW Special dispatch to the New York Herald: Lincoln Neb. A six year test of the Nebraska anti-trust law, in so far as It a'ffects local un fair discrimination, has proved successful, In. the opinion of the officials whose duty it is to look to its enforcement. The original anti-trust enactment of 1897, which was found ineffective,, was materially amended and added to at the legislative session of 1905 In what is known as the Junkin. anti-trust law. Its strong point is In prohibiting discrimination in the selling price of any article. Tn other words, the anti-dis-crimination section provides that prices must be the same for any commodity' In every part of the state, affected only by the difference in the cost of transportation or quality of the article. The wording of the statute is as follows: "Any person, firm or company, association, or corporation foreign or domestic, doing business in the state of Nebraska and engaged in the pro ductions' manufacture or distribution of any com modity in general use, that shall intentionally for the purpose of destroying the business of a competitor in any locality discriminate between different sections, communities or cities of this state by selling such commodity at a lower rate in one section, community or city than- Is charged in another section, after making due allowance for the difference, if any, in the grade or quality and in the actual cost of transporta tion rom the point of production if a raw pro duct, or from the point of manufacture if a . manufactured product, shall be deemed guilty of unfair discrimination, which is hereby pro hibited and declared unlawful." The penalty provided for violations is a fine of from $50Q to $5,000 or imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed a year or both. For feiture ,'of charters and ousters from. the state In the case of both domestic and foreign cor porations is provided following' trial and con viction. , Under the original anti-trust law two success ful suits were prosecuted by the state, first in the case of 'the. grain elevator combine, which was compelled to dissolve, and again In the case of the "Nebraska "Lumber Dealers' association, which after a bitter struggle was forced to dis integrate. A number of suits under the antl-discriroina-tionsection of the enactment have been Insti tuted in the last three years, and in not a single instance, so far as there Is record, has there been a failure to convict. In a number of these cases appeals have been taken to the supremo court, witli the result that the highest tribunal of the state has sustained the validity of the law, . One pf the recent actions -was that in one of the smaller tQwns where existed two grain buy ing firms, one an independent elevator and the other belonging to a company having a line of levators in this and neighboring states. Both firms at the outset paid practically the same prlcep for grain, but on account of the better The Commoner; acquaintance of the independent dealer he wa getting the bulk of th grain brought to th town by the farmers. To meet this- condition, the line company forced up the; price of grain to a figure out of proportfon to the ruling prices in the state for this one town alone, while other elevators of the same company In nearby towns, whore no competition existed, paid a price per bushel much lower. The- effect was to, drive- the independent dealer out of business, and suit was brought under the anti-discrimination: sec tion of the law. The Independent dealer won in the lower court, and on appeal' the supreme court sustained the? decision., Railroad companies1 at first fought the. statute, alleging it was inconsistent, but so far as: known; there has been no infraction, by the carriers for twa years. "T1D& OLD SHIP IS LEAKING" At a republican convention, held? in Ne braska at the time of the populist uprising-, a famous republican, acting as chairman, warned the gathered hosts that "the old ship is leaking; now." The Washington, correspondent for the New York World describings the meeting of the re publican, national, committee told of. the notable developments in, this way: "1. Turning of the cabinet room of the. White house Into a battle ground fora- conflict between two factions of the party over the selec tion of the chairman of the committee on ar rangements, for the next convention,, with the president of the United States as an unsuccess ful umpire. "2. An open declaration of war by the antf Taft men against hfs renomihation on the ground that he can. not he elected. "3. The abandonment of the "progressive" and "new nationalist" issues In the fight against the president and the resort to the old-time methods for factional supremacy. "4, The discarding of the boom for Senator Robert Marlon La Follette of. Wisconsin and the raising- of the standard of Theodore Roosevelt by party chieftains who have been publicly branded by him as reactionaries and stand patters. "5. The official declarations of chairmen of the republican state committees, of two states that Mr. Taft can not be re-elected if present conditions continue through the coming" cam paign. "6.. The apparent inability of President Taft to prevent an open breach in his party as a. result of the aggressive attitude of his adver saries who have assumed command of the move ment to bring about the nomination of Col. Roosevelt in order to prevent his own." Surely it may be saEd of the national repub lican party, "The old ship is- leaking, now." Tina AMERICAN BEAUTY. HOSE, AGAIN Away back in 190 & Rev. Newell Dwight. Hillls' said: "The saddest word& that have been writ ten in this generation were spoken before Brown, university by a young man who is to inherit one of the greatest fortunes in this country. They were spoken: in defense of the trusts. Listen to them: - " 'The American .Beauty rose can be produced in all its splendor only by sacrificing the early buds th'at grow up around it The rose has, 1,000 buds: and in order to produce the Ameri can Beauty the gardner goes- around it with a. knife and snips 999 in order that all the strength and beauty may be forced into one bloom. In his economic arguments; this young man brutally tells th working classes that 999 small business men must bo snuffed out of existence in order that hfs American Beauty, the trust, may be produced." In a recent Issue the New York World printed, this editorial: "John D. Rockefeller jr., in his celebrated Bible-class parable of the rose, instanced the gardener's method of cutting off all but one bud from the stem to produce the perfect American Beauty, and showed the application of the idea to the trust question. . which the elder Rockefeller was evolved Into the perfect rose of trust finance Is furnished by the testimony of Albert and Leonidas Merrltt beforo the Stanley Steel trust Investigating com mittee. The testimony of the brothers illumi nates -the methods by which it is alleged Albert Merrltt was compelled by Rockefeller' calling of a loan of less than $1,000,000 to surrender at $30 a sharo stock which has since earned dividends of $200 a sharo, and to sacrifice at ,a nominal figure a tenth Interest in a railroad which last year is represented to have earned .$8,000,0001 The negotiation the call loan through; ministerial; Influences carries out" the analogy of th$ parable "The process Is doubtless somewhat painful for the buds that are cut off. But It Is thus that perfect roses are produced in horticulture and In high finance. The point of popular, interest . Is as to how far under the Shorman act the law of the- garden, agrees, with, the. federal statutes-"' A DEFENDER OF ORBEE - The Joplhr Daily Globe, which used to-be' on of the lea'ding democratic papers of southern Missouri seems to have gone, over body and soul to the trusts. In aw editorial, printed re cently it pfesented an elaborate defense of the steel trust. After defending, the: organization and methods of the steel trust, the Globe con cludes: "Industry; thought civilization,, can't go back.. This; is? a day of big, visions; and bi, achievements. It is a day of T3ig Business. If. the world Is to live at its present standards the business of the world must be conducted by big men oa a' big scale. , "We- can't turn back the, clock. Wei can't, stop it. And who would want tot dot. It. if be . could? There isn't & yesterday anywhere alongr the road of time that compares with today in the vital respects of the world's- comforts pros-" pecity, culture, happiness, opportunity. "The. men who are- at the heati of the steel corporation are master minds'. They ara lead ers today because this; is a day of business;, The counterparts; of just stfch minds were th great generals In the days, of militarism, great ecclesiasts In the days of ctairch dominance, th warriors', bold in the days? of chivalry. "The law may fetter genius' but it never created talent. "It is difficult to perceive what in the way of! betterment it Is hoped to accomplish by the dis integration of great industrial1 enterprises that have yielded as- much, if not more, to- the world than they have, taken from the world. "What are the fortunes of a few multimil lionaires as against the standard of living- which the amassing of such fortunes has established? "What must be the end of a propagandum that holds an exceptional degree of success-a crime?" If the attorney for the steel trust had written' the editorial it could not more servilely support the great corporation which is how before the court It is surprising that any paper in the west should attempt to defend the steel trust. Wall' street organs are under a sort of tev rorism and little else can be expected of them except praise of the great predatory combina tions, but a paper published as far west as Mis souri ought to be able to take the people's' side of a great question like this. The argument that the trust is- a natural development or neces sary to the nation's progress is an argument 'that could be made just as well in support of burglary, horse stealing- or any other kind of crime. A" private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable. This has been three, times the declaration of the, democratic platform,, and the truth of the. statement la becoming more and more apparent.. Industry will: not go backward when It Is. freed from the strangle grasp of monopoly. Thought will not go backward when it Is. "free frpm the coercion, of the. exploiters; Civilisation: will not go back when the cora mercial seas are ,f reed from the financial pirates that new assume the right to plunder at will. This Is a day of big visions, but one can not claim that his vision is" large if he sees na escape from the operation- of the trusts, and it is; not a big achievement to defend grand larceny It Is time to distinguish between the doing of business on a large scale and the overthrow of competition. The trust' magnate is not the first genius who has felt .himself fettered by the law. Nearly every Napoleon of finance has. made the same complaint. It is fortunate that Jasper' county has In "The Tribune"" an antidote for the Globe's poison. "BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT" Members- of the American beef trust have - re ceived the following letter from the representa tives of the British government: "War office, London S. W In reference to contracts of the army. In reply to your'letter I am directed to inform you that pending the ultimate result of the legal proceedings -In th United States against certain meat-packing , firms, It has been decided by the British govern- ' mont that none of the firms involved shall D invited to tender for army supplies. ". "-? "N. S. B, OSBORNE, v'rVV "Director of Army Contracts. '$'' J. :. ft , u