The Conservative.
method , and Gilohrist and Thomas with
still another.
The great monopolies of this country
owe their existence to special unjust
privileges , conferred upon them by a
course of legislation , which the people
of the United States adopted of their
own free will , and which are still main
tained by the votes of the very people
who most loudly declaim against monop
olies. Foremost among these are the
tariff laws , the internal revenue laws
and the patent laws. We shall briefly
consider these in the order of the least
important.
Patent Law Monopolies.
Taking first the patent laws , which
avowedly concede a monopoly for the
term of seventeen years , for good and
solid reasons in each case , we have only
to say that they afford a striking illus
tration of the dangers attendant upon
any legalized monopoly , however meri
torious. This is shown by a compara
tively recent scandal , with regard to a
pretended conflict of claims in the patent
office. Two opposing claims were
secretly purchased by one corporation ,
which afterwards employed attorneys
on both sides to keep up the sham con
test for many years , resulting in a
practical monopoly of a single invention
for thirty years , instead of seventeen.
By similar manipulations , other valuable
inventions are monopolized for a much
longer time than the law intends ; while
many others are simply locked up and
kept out of public use entirely. The
patent laws need a thorough revision ;
all in the direction of greater liberty.
As we do not propose to discuss details
on this occasion , we confine ourselves
to saying that these laws should be so
amended as to make it impossible for
any monopoly to last under it for more
than seventeen years from the date of
the application for a patent , and so as to
permit the use by everybody of all
patented inventions upon reasonable
terms ; or in some other way patents
should be prevented from supporting
any monopoly for a longer period than
the precise term prescribed upon the face
of the statute.
Internal Revenue I.RW Monopolies.
The internal revenue laws , by the re
strictions with which they surround the
manufacture of liquors and tobacco ,
afford some great advantages to monop
olies. As it is our object in this article
not to specify any particular monopoly
now existing , we prefer to illustrate the
point by reference to the match manu
facture , in the days when there was an
internal revenue tax of one cent a box.
It is well known that the result of that
tax was to destroy immediately all
independent manufacturers , and to concentrate -
contrate the business in the hands of
two or three great corporations. When
that tax was repealed in 1883 , these
monopolies fell of their own weight ;
and it was many years before they could
be reconstructed. The present great
combinations in the match manufacture
are to bo found in other laws encourag
ing monopoly , which are still main
tained.
Tariff the Mother of American Trusts.
The tariff is the most fertile source of
American monopolies. Daring the last
thirty or forty years hardly an instance
has been known in which an American
monopoly has been denied any part of
the benefits which it has demanded in
the enactment of tariff laws. In 1890
and 1897 , this rule was without any
known exception. In 1894 there were
but few exceptions. Tariffs are always
made up by the very parties who are
interested in preventing foreign compe
tition and in securing for themselves a
monopoly of the domestic trade. These
facts and their effects upon the pro
motion of monopolies have been shown
so clearly by former writers in this series
of articles , that nothing more need be
said here upon the point.
It is simply absurd to make any effort
to prohibit or to regulate trusts and
combinations , while their causes are left
untouched. If the American people
shrink from competition with other
nations of the earth , and deem them
selves justified in preventing such com
petition by force , they have no moral
right to complain if American capitalists
take advantage of the laws which pre
vent foreign competition , to make of
them instruments to prevent domestic
competition also. Neither have Ameri
cans , who believe in preventing foreign
competition by force , any moral right to
complain of capitalists , who prevent
domestic competition by fraud. The
one is just as moral , or immoral , as the
other.
Fundamental Remedy.
And thus we come , at last , to the
fundamental remedy which is needed.
The fundamental cause of American
monopolies is to be found in the lack of
honesty , justice , business courage and
love of fair dealing , which is un
fortunately characteristic of a vast
majority of the human race , not except
ing the people in the United States of
America. Whenever a majority of the
American people demand simple justice ,
neither more nor less , for themselves ,
all those questions will be speedily
settled , and trusts will dissolve like
snow in summer. For any man who
demands and receives exact justice fpr
himself , and no more , necessarily con
cedes precisely as much to every one
else ; and if no man received any more
than justice , every man would receive
justice. No right can be taken away
from any one man , without conferring
more than his right upon another. It is
as impossible to give less than justice to
all men at once , as it is to cut off a sec
tion of the air and destroy it , leaving a
blank.
The inconsistency of any man who
demands that competition shall be free ,
when it works in his favor , but shall be
prohibited , when it works against him ,
is obvious. But it is not so obvious to
the ordinary mind that it is equally
absurd to insist upon freedom of compe
tition within the borders of the United
States , while excluding competition
from without. Nevertheless , the exclu
sion of competition is quite as unjust
and injurious in the one case as in the
other ; and the demand for freedom of
competition at home , while denying
freedom of competition from abroad , is
absurd and suicidal. The laws of nature
cannot be persuaded to work only half
way. No man can take poison and yet
enjoy good health. No man can enslave
another , yet remain entirely free him
self. Neither can any man or nation
draw an artificial line and say : "With
in these boundaries , competition shall
be perfectly free ; but outside of these
boundaries , there shall be no compe
tition at all. "
The remedy , and the only remedy , for
the evils of domestic monopolies , is the
repeal of all laws which pretend to give
to-any man , rich or poor , American or
European , any protection against natural
competition , any artificial monopoly of
natural resources or any advantage
which is not thrown open , on equal
terms , to all human beings.
Who would be freemen , must set all
men free.
THCWIAS G. SHEAUMAN.
New York , April 16 , 1900.
THE
A DOG.
TIVE reproduces a
tribute to a dog which appeared in the
last issue of the paper of Rev. Jenkiu
Lloyd Jones , "Unity. " "Bozzie" was a
welcome visitor at the offices of the
Santa Fe road in Chicago and the writer
himself witnessed her achievements as a
mind reader. He wrote the figure seven
on a bit of paper and asked "Bozzie" to
bark the number which she did im
mediately though she had not seen the
number nor the writing thereof at all.
' 'This line , which appeared last week in
the Chicago dailies , caused the tears to
come to the eyes of
BoZie IH Dead. "
many children ,
created a pang in the hearts of hundreds
of Chicago citizens and aroused pro
found regret in the mind of sage , scien
tist , and particularly wise psychologist ,
and yet Bozzie was but a dog.
But such a dog ! A dog high in pedi
gree , beautiful in form , gracious and
loving in manners. But more than this ,
this canny Scotch Collie has unquestion
ably outreaohed all the recorded achieve
ments of the dog mind. To speak of
her accomplishments as "tricks" is to
utterly fail to appreciate the profound
significance of her accomplishments.
