* '
8 "Che Conservative.
welcome from such a man at such a
moment. "
An eiror in spelling was as offensive
to Parnell , Mr. McCarthy tells us , as the
sight of a blackbeetle is to many a man :
"I once handed him a letter which I
had received from a constituent of mine ,
asking mo to call Parnell's attention to
some improvement which he thought
might be made in a bill then before the
house dealing with the subject of agri
cultural occupation of Ireland. Un
luckily the poor man who wrote the let
ter had spelled agricultural with two ys.
Paruell looked at the letter , smiled
sadly , and handed it back to me. 'Do
forgive me , ' ho said , 'and tell ino all
about it. I couldn't rend through a
man's letter who spells agricultural with
two ys , ' It was indeed a curious stroke
of fate which led the unhappy author of
the Parnell forgeries to ornament his
letters with flagrant examples of bad
spelling. "
Among other men who have been lion
oned with almost entire chapters are
Richard Cobden , John Stuart Mills ,
Charles Sumner , Walt Whitman , Brigham -
ham Young , George Eliot , George Mer
edith , Charles Reade , Anthony Trollope ,
Lord Randolph Churchill , Sir Stafford
Northcote , Prince Napoleon , Froude ,
Freeman , Cardinal Manning , William
Black , Rudyard Kipling , and last Wil
liam Ewart Gladstone.
Published by Harper & Brothers , New
York ; price , $4.50. The Argonaut.
PltOFKSSOIt ASHI.KY ON TKUSTS.
Prof. W. J. Ashley of Harvard Uni
versity discusses American Trusts in the
June number of the London Economic
Journal. Ho considers the movement
towards consolidation inevitable. In so
far as it is a successful movement it re
moves the determination of the price of
the monopolized article from the range
av m of competition. "The self-interest of
the monopolists , " ho says , "although
some protection , is yet an inadequate
protection of the interests of the con
sumer. " The trust will aim to fix the
price at the point which will yield the
largest net results to itself. This maybe
bo considerably above the price that
would yield a fair profit. What is the
remedy ? Repealing the duties on mo
nopolized articles will apply the correc
tive of foreign competition to those arti
cles only that are imported , and to those
only until the monopolists extend their
operations so as to include foreign pro
ducers , as the cotton-thread makers
have already done.
Even this remedy will not avail , how
ever , as regards articles whoso produc
tion is not subject to foreign competi
tion. "I see nothing for it , " says Pro
fessor Ashley , "but that in countries
where the monopolizing movement is
well under way , the governments should
assume the duty of in some way con
trolling prices. " Ho recognizes the fact
that in such an event the governments
would bo compelled to regulate wages
also , since labor is the chief element incest
cost of production. The difficulties to
be overcome are enormous , and the
scheme is not to bo attempted without
"a fairly efficient administrative ser
vice , " but Professor Ashley thinks that
we are gravitating in that direction and
that wo might as well face the problem
of "tho distribution of the social pro
duct without the aid of competition. "
This is the socialist programme brought
in by a side wind. Professor Ashley's
position in reference to it can be best
stated in his own words , viz :
"It may be a result of niy own pen
chant for things medhcvnl ; but I cannot
iclp thinking that the economist may
soon find himself confronted in modern
life with some of the ideas underlying
; he old demand for 'justprices' and rea
sonable wages' which ho has been ac
customed to regard as quite out of plnce
in political economy. When in the
great coal strike a few years ago the
men demanded that "a living wage'
should be treated as a first charge , and
that wages should determine prices
rather than prices wages , the demand
was commonly regarded as obviously
foolish. But you may have noticed that
the fundamental idea of the successful
Birmingham combination , already re
ferred to , is precisely 'the taking out of
costs ; ' the idea that prices should never
be set lower than the ordinary cost of
production , including a fair profit for
the entrepreneur and a fair wage for the
employee. The subject , I know , is full
of enormous difficulties , which every
tyro in economics can set forth at a
moment's notice. "
At the risk of seeming to be a tyro in
economics wo shall point out some of
the difficulties which beset this plan.
The substance of it is that in a country
governed by universal suffrage the legis
lative power shall be invoked to fix the
prices of sugar , kerosene oil , cotton-
thread , bicycles , leather , tobacco , and
all other things the production of which
is or may be controlled by a trust or
ether combination , and also the wages
in those employments. Possibly this
delicate task might , in the first instance ,
be intrusted to the judicial power. In
such event now courts would have to be
created for this express purpose , since
the present ones are overworked already.
It needs no profit , however to tell us that
the decisions of the courts would con
stantly tend in the direction of higher
wages. Both the feeling of sympathy
and the pressure of the wage-earners
would push that way , and if the move
ment were not sufficiently rapid , if the
wages were not high enough to satisfy
the workers , means would soon be found
to abolish the courts and to put the
wage-making power in the hands of the
legislature.
Suppose that events in the industrial
world should take a turn making a re-
duction of wages necessary , what legis- I
Lure would have the courage to order it ?
Would auy legislature that has over sat
in the state of Illinois have had the
courage to face Mr. Debs and his follow
ers in the Pullman Palace Car Com
pany's crisis a few years ago ? In this
case Mr. Pullman said that the wages
demanded could not be paid ; that the
price at which cars were sold netted a
oss to the builders , and that stopnage
of the works was the alternative , and
stop they did. Do we hear the reply
: hat the legislature would , in that case ,
fix the price of cars at a higher rate ? It
depends altogether upon the buyers of
cars whether they will order new ones
or not , and it is not altogether in their
oower to say what price they shall pay.
[ t depends upon the traveling and the
shipping public to say whether the busi
ness of the railroads shall justify the
purchase of new cars , and to fix the
price which can be paid for them. If a
railroad has the yard full of idle rolling
stock , no decree of a legislature can com
pel it to take more cars at any price
whatsoever. In short , the conditions of
; rade determine this question , and they
will continue to do so in spite of every
device that human ingenuity can im
agine or contrive.
What was possible in the simple state
of society in the mediaeval world and in
the prevailing habit of obedience to
authority , and in the means for enforc
ing obedience , would be wholly imprac
ticable in the changed conditions of the
present day. Society is too complex.
The habit of freedom is too ingrained to
submit to the regulation of prices by
government. The law may raise prices
by imposing a tax , but it cannot compel
people to buy the thing taxed , and for
this reason it cannot fix the profits of
the producers of it , or the wages of their
employees. Chaos would be the imme
diate result of such an attempt in this
country or any other. Professor Ash
ley , indeed , .says that "any country
which thinks of attempting it , must
provide itself with a fairly efficient ad
ministrative service. " But there is no
country which has an administrative
service efficient enough or an army
strong enough for this purpose. The
German government is probably better
equipped in both respects than any other
in the world. It is also saddled with in
dustrial combinations to a deplorable
extent. Yet it did not dare to fix the
price of tobacco and the wages of the
workers in tobacco-factories , even under
the iron rule of Bismarck , although the
aim was a purely fiscal one , and was
justified by the experience of other na
tions. New York Evening Post.
The Kitchen cabinet of the Greater
American Exposition of Omaha has lost
its Algor. Embalmed lunches seem to
have disagreed with the digestion of the
auditing committee.
S8ET-