It is a strange thing when we come to analyze the various social evils
which demand our attention, and which every true man longs to cure, to
find how great a proportion can be traced back to the one great evil of
faulty competition. As a preliminary to a survey of these evils, in
order that we may understand the necessity that all good men and true
should exert themselves in applying the remedy, let us see just what
conditions of our industrial society we should seek to work toward. What
is the theoretical perfection of human industry?
Probably all thinking men, whatever their belief and practice, will
acquiesce in the proposition that the end we should aim to secure is
"the largest good to the greatest number." As we are discussing here
only economic questions, this means that the end to be sought is that
the largest number of people should have secured to them the greatest
possible amount of the necessaries and comforts of life; or, more
simply, that the total of human happiness to be derived from the world's
production of wealth should be the greatest possible. Now for our
present purpose we may assume that since all men desire wealth, the
greater its production, the greater will be the number of human desires
gratified. From this it follows that our social organization should be
such as to increase to the greatest possible degree the world's stock of
wealth.
There is no easier or safer way of studying questions of economics than
to consider the community as a unit, and see what is for the interest of
the people as a whole; what conduces most to the "common wealth"; and if
we do this, whenever the question concerns production alone, the task is
simple, because the interests of the people as a whole are judged in the
same way as the interests of a single person. Whatever tends to increase
the total amount of wealth in the world, therefore, benefits the
community as a whole; and whatever diminishes the supply is an injury.
All work of every sort which tends to aid in the economical production
of wealth and its transfer to the consumer is a benefit to the
community; and any thing which destroys wealth, lessens its production,
or hinders men from exerting themselves to produce it, is an economic
injury.
What, then, are we to say of the condition known as over-production? Is
it not a fact that some lines of industry are so overdone that the
production is far in excess of the demand, and is not this an evil
rather than a benefit? Do not periods of business depression occur when
all industries stagnate for want of a market for their goods? The true
answer to this question is: Over-production is not a fault of
_production_, but of _distribution_. It is true that, in special
industries, a surplus of production sometimes occurs, due to
over-stimulation, or too rapid growth; but over-production as commonly
spoken of, refers to a general state of trade, in which demand for all
sorts of goods seems to fall far below the market supply. But this lack
of demand is not due to lack of desire. The desires of men are always
in excess of their abilities to supply them; it follows, therefore, that
the condition known as over-production consists in a lack of _ability_
to purchase goods rather than in a lack of _desire_ to purchase them.
This lack of ability has evidently to do with the distribution of wealth
rather than its production.
While it is easy to formulate laws to govern the theoretically perfect
production of wealth, to whose justice all men will consent, we cannot
go far in the details of the ideal distribution of wealth without
reaching points upon which the views of different parties are
diametrically opposed. Some foundation principles, however, let us
state, believing that in their truth the great majority of men will
concur.
In the chapter on the theory of competition we saw that, if we conceived
the results of the labor of the whole community to be placed in a common
storehouse and gave to each man the right to draw from it an amount just
equal to the benefit derived from the goods which he had placed within
it, the ideal of a perfect system of distribution of wealth would be
realized. No human judgment, however, is, or ever can be, competent to
measure the exact industrial benefits which each person confers upon the
community at large. We must inevitably permit men to measure the result
of their own work by securing for it such an amount of the results of
others' work as they can induce them to give in exchange. But while we
cannot measure exactly the benefit which each person confers, we can see
cases in which the reward received is manifestly out of all proportion
to the benefit conferred. Consider the fortunes which have been
accumulated by some of our Midases of the present decade. It is quite
certain that the benefits which Cornelius Vanderbilt, for instance,
conferred on the community by his enterprise and business sagacity, by
his work in opening new fields of industry, forming new channels for
commerce, etc., were so valuable that he honestly earned the right to
enjoy a large fortune. It is equally certain that a great part of his
gains had nothing whatever to do with any benefit conferred upon the
community, and that the fortune of $100,000,000 or so which he
accumulated was an example of inequitable distribution of the products
of the world's industry. Stating this in the form of a general
principle, we should say: _The amount of wealth which any man receives
should bear some approximate relation to the benefit which he confers
upon the world._
We have already stated that, by the law of supply and demand, the
rewards of each worker are regulated in theory even more perfectly in
accordance with our ideas of liberty than they could be on the basis of
actual benefit conferred. For it is inconceivable that people would
submit to pay for what was beneficial to them instead of what they
desired. A man who prefers to purchase wines instead of books with his
surplus money would think it a great injustice if he were prevented from
doing as he preferred with his own. But so long as every one is at
liberty to use his income in buying whatever he desires most,
_demand_--the willingness to pay money for the gratification of the
desire--will exist, and so long as demand exists it will be met by a
supply, furnished by those who are desirous of money and what it will
bring. It is inconceivable, then, that any juster arrangement than this
law of supply and demand can ever be practicable for regulating the
compensation of each individual. The man who can drive a locomotive will
receive larger wages than the man who shovels the earth to form its
pathway, because the supply of men competent to drive an engine is small
in proportion to the number of men who are wanted for that work, while
almost any man can shovel dirt. Let us state, then, for our second
principle: _The amount of wealth which any man receives should depend on
the ratio between the demand which exists for his services and the
supply of those able to render like service._ Farther than these
statements of the ideal principles governing the economical production
and equitable distribution of wealth we need not go at present.
Let us turn now to examine the result of a violation of these principles
in some of the crying evils of the present day which are wholly or in
part due to the growth of monopoly and the waste of competition.
Every candid man will acknowledge that the enormous congestion of wealth
in a few hands which exists to-day is a danger to be feared. We have had
it constantly dinned in our ears that in this free land the ups and
downs of fortune were such that the rich man of to-day was apt to be the
beggar to-morrow; also that almost invariably a rich man's sons were
reckless spendthrifts. These things, aided by the abolition of
primogeniture and entails, it was said, were to prevent the growth of a
moneyed aristocracy in this country. The propounders of this amiable
theory never explained how the community received reparation for the
destruction of wealth which the spendthrift sons were to carry on; but
so long as the theory has failed to work in practice, that does not
matter so much.
A few years ago it was a favorite occupation of newspaper paragraphers
to estimate the Gould and Vanderbilt fortunes; but lately they seem
to have given them up as beyond the limits of even their robust
guessing abilities. Some idea of the latter's fortune may be gained,
however, by realizing the fact that the Vanderbilt railway system now
has a total extent of nearly 12,000 miles, the total value of which can
hardly be less than one thousand millions of dollars. Probably not less
than half of the securities of these companies are owned by the
Vanderbilt family, and it is well known that their investments are by no
means confined to railways. The important fact is, that this fortune
grows so fast now that it is sure to increase; and will double itself
every fifteen or twenty years, because all that its owners can spend is
but a drop in the bucket toward using up their income. But this fortune,
while the largest which is still under one name, is but one of many
enormous ones. The names of Gould, Flagler, Astor, Rockefeller,
Stanford, Huntington, and a host of others follow close after the
Vanderbilts. In the days of our grandfathers, millionaires were no more
plentiful than hundred-millionaires are to-day.
We have next to show the present and prospective evils which result from
this congestion of wealth. The first and most obvious one is its injury
to the remainder of the people of the country, by the diversion from
them of wealth which they have rightfully earned and which they would
receive were it not for the tax of monopoly. It is obvious that a
certain amount of wealth is annually produced by the industry of the
country from which the whole wants of the country must be supplied. This
amount may be greater, indeed, when a Gould or a Flagler or a Crocker
directs the enterprise; but for the most part it is indisputable that
the owners of these colossal fortunes have made them, not by any
stimulus of the production of wealth by their owners, but by a
diversion of the produced wealth in the general distribution from
others' pockets to their own. In short, all other men are poorer that
these many times millionaires may be richer. To show how these fortunes
have in many cases been obtained, I cannot do better than to quote a
writer not at all likely to err by undue severity to our millionaires,
as he is himself the president of a railway system a thousand miles in
extent:
The great majority of the phenomenal fortunes of the day are the
result of what may be called lucky gambling.... Man is a gambling
animal by nature, and modern methods have enormously developed both
its facilities and its temptations and have opened large fields in
which gambling is not held to be disreputable.
Under such stimulus is it wonderful that its growth has been
phenomenal? Wall street is its head-quarters, and millions upon
millions of dollars are accumulated there to meet the wants of the
players. Railroad stocks are its favorite cards to bet upon, for
their valuation is liable to constant fluctuation on account of
weather, crops, new combinations, wars, strikes, deaths, and
legislation. They can also be easily affected by personal
manipulations.... Money makes money, and money in great masses has
its attractive power increased. The aspect of phenomenal fortunes,
therefore, is a social problem of some importance. Their manner of
growth and their manner of use are to be observed, and what
restrictions, if any, should be placed on their accumulation should
be considered.[5]
[5] "Railway Practice." By E. P. Alexander, President Central
Railroad and Banking Co. of Georgia.
The fact pointed out by General Alexander in the above quotation is one
which is far too lightly appreciated. The evils of railway management by
which the owners of the stocks and bonds of the company are victimized
to enrich stock speculators are much too complex and numerous to be
described here. The state of affairs can be briefly summed up, however,
with the statement that our present system of conducting corporate
enterprises results inevitably in the gravitation of their ownership
into the hands of the holders of large fortunes. The railways of the
country are an instance in point. Time was when the stocks and bonds of
railways were owned by people of small means all over the country. But
after many severe lessons in the shape of stocks wiped out, and bond
interest scaled down, these small holders were taught the folly of
investing their savings in business over which they had practically no
control, and thus placing them at the mercy of irresponsible corporate
officers. Broadly speaking, the railway property of the country is owned
by men worth their millions; and the small holdings are being rapidly
absorbed every day. But the case is not true of railways alone.
Telegraph lines, telephone, and electric light plants, our mines, and to
a large extent our factories, which were once held by private owners,
are now controlled by corporations whose shares are quoted on the
exchanges and are consequently subject to a forced variation, dictated
according as "bull" or "bear" has the ascendancy. And when the ownership
of a property is once brought into this channel, it is no longer a
suitable investment for the man of small means. It is the prey of men
who practically make bets as to what its future price will be, and
manipulate the price, if possible, to win their bets. If it is ever
again held for investment simply, it is when it is locked in the safe of
some modern Croesus.
We have shown now the extent to which the congestion of wealth has gone.
We have shown that other men are poorer that these men may be richer. We
have explained that these great fortunes have been made, not by
legitimate enterprise, but largely by "lucky gambling." And finally we
have seen how the transfer of each enterprise to the control of stock
speculators adds it eventually to some already overgrown fortune. The
connection with the subject of the present volume is obvious. The
cotton-seed oil mills of the South, once held by private owners, are now
in the hands of a trust whose certificates are quoted on the
stock-exchanges, and are held only by men of large capital, or by stock
gamblers. This is a typical example of the change which is everywhere
occurring. Private enterprise gives way to the stock company, and that
in turn gives way to the trust. The salient fact, then, we may express
in similar terms to those of our first law of competition, as follows:
_The congestion of wealth tends to increase inversely with the number of
competing units._
The facts we have stated make it impossible for the greater monopolies
to defend themselves, on the ground that their profits inure to the
benefit of any great number of people. But this is not an innocuous
state of affairs. It is one of serious injustice and evil. The workman
who struggles hard to save a hundred dollars a year can receive only a
paltry three dollars and a half of interest or less, if he deposits it
in a saving-bank. But the capitalist who is clearing a hundred thousand
a year may make twice or thrice that interest from his investments. In
short, the charge is: That monopoly and intense competition, with the
variation in price which they cause, have shut out the small capitalists
of the country from the ownership of the most profitable sorts of
property; and by confining them to other lines, have decreased their
possible income from their investments.
A further evil resulting from the congestion of wealth is what is
commonly spoken of as over-production. We are confronted of late years
with the strange spectacle of factories and mills shut down for months
at a time, of markets which, at various times, are glutted with every
sort of commodity. All sorts of causes are given; all sorts of remedies
are suggested and tried. Where is the true one? With the exception of a
few special cases, the fault is not that there are no people who want
the goods. Probably ninety-nine families out of every hundred would buy
more if they had the money to buy with. In many cases the lack of money
to buy with is due to the fact that the bread-winners are out of
employment because of the glutted markets and idle mills. In this way
the evil tends to perpetuate itself and grow worse. Now combine this
fact with the fact that the holders of monopolies are in the receipt of
incomes so great that, in many cases, they are quite unable to spend
them. Also, that this income is largely locked up to wait the chance of
profitable investment, or is used in speculation. Is it not obvious,
now, that the reason why people cannot afford to purchase the goods,
with which the storehouses are glutted, is that too large a proportion
of profits has been diverted to swell fortunes already enormous? Have we
not in this way accounted for a large amount, at least, of the
over-production which is throwing out of employment thousands of
workmen, rendering useless a vast amount of valuable capital, and
affecting from time to time the business of the whole country with a
veritable paralysis?
The facts bear out this theory. For, at many times when producers in
every industry are complaining of dull times because people who buy have
no money to spend, there is an abundance of money to be had for
investment. Fortunately, the evil seen from this aspect must, to a
certain extent, be but a temporary one, and will tend to work its own
cure. For as the world's stock of invested wealth continues to grow,
there is less opportunity for its profitable investment in improving
undeveloped natural resources. The greater portion of our wealth we save
and invest, the faster will the rate of interest tend downward. But, as
this occurs, the operators of mills and mines have to pay less out of
their receipts as interest on their borrowed capital, and can,
therefore, pay more to their workmen.
There is another way in which monopoly works to cause over-production,
with its attendant evils. Suppose a trust is formed in some
manufacturing industry, where the working capacity is just equal to
supplying the demand. The first work of the trust is to raise the prices
perhaps 20, 30, or 40 per cent. Of course this causes a falling off in
the demand, and the trust has to shut down some of its mills to ward off
over-production. The true cause of over-production in this case is, that
the prices are not in equilibrium with the relation between supply and
demand. Let prices come down, and the demand will increase. The working
of this special case gives us an idea of the way in which general
over-production is caused. For it is well known that monopolies have
raised the prices and reduced the consumption not of one, but of
hundreds of articles. If the men who are made idle by the
over-production in these industries flock into other occupations to
secure work, they reduce wages there; so that, in any case, their
purchasing power is reduced, and this tends to perpetuate and increase
the evil. Of course it is not pretended to claim that all industrial
depressions have been due to over-production, or the local congestion
of the world's income. But that a large part of it may be justly laid to
this cause, seems to be beyond question.
We have shown that the congestion of wealth is very largely due to the
growth of monopoly, and we have discussed the more immediate evils that
result from this congestion of wealth. But when we attempt to describe
the evils and abuses which follow close after, as a result of the power
which monopoly has placed in the hands of a few, we may well pause at
the task. The whole array of perplexing social problems comes before us,
and we realize more and more what a curse monopoly has become. The
philanthropist tells us that poverty, and all the distresses that follow
in its wake, are largely due to the fact that our workingmen under
present conditions _must_ live from hand to mouth, _must_ rely on
charity for aid in every emergency, and _must_, therefore, decrease in
manliness and self-reliance and the ambition to better themselves, as
the practical impossibility of success is comprehended.
Good men are lamenting because the Church has, to a great degree, lost
its hold on the laboring classes, and are casting about on all sides for
a remedy. Will they ever find one as long as the wage-worker carries in
his bosom a rankling sense of injury done him? Injury which he feels
that the Church is merely seeking to drug with charity instead of
wishing to cure it with justice? There is great need that the Church,
not alone by the sermons of its most enlightened thinkers, like Dr.
Heber Newton, but by the daily practice of the rank and file of its
membership, should recognize, as it never yet has done, the great
principles of human fraternity, and move intelligently and earnestly to
remedy the great evils that menace us.
Even the evil of intemperance can be traced back to a connection with
monopoly. Who shall blame the tired laborer, if after a week with sixty
hours of unremitting toil, he takes refuge from the dreariness and
lassitude of physical exhaustion, the hopelessness of ambition-quenched
life, and perhaps the discomforts and disquiet of the place he calls
home, in a long draught of that which does, for the time, create in him
an image of exhilaration, strength, self-respect, and manhood? It is but
an image, indeed, and to all but the victim it is a caricature; but when
a man cannot hope for the reality, to only imagine for a brief hour that
he is indeed a king of men, and that care and woe and degradation are no
longer his lot, is a refuge not to be despised.
There is indeed a class of philanthropists who say, with some truth,
that the laboring classes as a whole have now more than they will spend
for their own good, and declare that higher wages means merely more
spent on sprees and debasing sports, of different sorts but universally
harmful. On the other side, the wise philanthropists who are trying to
help their fellow-men in that best of all ways, by teaching them to rely
on themselves, testify that their efforts to make men independent are
largely hampered because it is so extremely difficult for a workingman
to live in any other way than from hand to mouth, especially in our
large cities. The true solution seems to be that all these reforms must
go hand in hand. We must teach men how to make nobler uses of their
incomes and themselves, while we endeavor to bring about reforms that
shall give them greater comforts and more leisure to use for either
self-improvement or self-debasement.
Much more might be said of the indirect effects which result from the
taxation which monopolies inflict upon the community for their own
profit; but they are now so generally realized and understood that we
can devote our time more profitably to the investigation of other evils.
Under the ideal system of competition which we studied in Chapter X., we
found that all occupations were competing with each other; so that if,
from any cause, one calling became especially profitable, men would
flock to it and bring down the profits to a normal point. Monopolies
have seriously interfered with this important and beneficent law. How
often do we hear the complaint of the great difficulties that beset
young men on their first entrance to business or industrial life in
securing a situation. The monopolized industries shut out new
competitors by every means in their power. The trade-unions limit the
number of apprentices which shall be allowed to learn their trade each
year. The result is, first, a most deplorable tendency to idleness on
the part of young men just at the time when they should be most active;
and, second, a still larger increase of men in the professions and
non-monopolized callings, tending to still further increase the
competition in those callings, where returns are already inferior to
what they should be. Surely, we must begin to appreciate how vitally
important to every person in the land is this matter of competition and
monopoly.
The evils which we have thus far considered pertain to the distribution
of wealth. Let us now turn our attention to the production of wealth.
Our second law of competition stated that the waste due to competition
varied directly as its intensity. We have frequently referred to this
waste of competition; let us now inquire more fully concerning its
amount and effect. In the first place, however, let us settle the
question, once for all, that waste or destruction of wealth of any sort
is an economic injury to the community. We have, indeed, already
explained this in the first paragraphs of the chapter; but while all
authorities on economics agree on this point, the general public is
still seriously infected with the fallacy that waste, destruction, and
unprofitable enterprises are beneficial because they furnish employment
to labor. If this were merely a theory, we could afford to ignore it;
but the trouble is that it is acted upon, and works untold evil and
damage to the world. To take a typical case, people reason that damage
done by flood or fire or storm is not a total loss because employment
will be furnished to many in repairing and rebuilding after the
devastation. They do not stop to reflect that so much wealth has been
wiped out of the world, and that _instead of the destruction furnishing
so much additional employment, it has only changed the direction of the
employment_. For money nowadays is always spent, either directly, by its
owners, or by some one to whom he lends it. And wherever money is spent
it furnishes employment. Therefore, if the money which was used in
repairing and rebuilding had not been required for that work, it would
have been spent in some other direction and furnished employment to
labor there. Understanding, then, that the economic interests of the
community are best served when each one of its members exerts his
energies with the greatest result and with the least waste in producing
wealth, let us see to what extent intense competition and monopolies
have violated this law.
In his interesting book entitled "Questions of the Day," Prof. Richard
P. Ely, of Johns Hopkins University, refers to the building of two great
railways with closely paralleled roads already in operation, the Nickel
Plate, and the New York, West Shore and Buffalo, and says:
"It is estimated that the money wasted by these two single attempts
at competition amounts to $200,000,000. Let the reader reflect for
a moment what this means. It will be admitted that, taking city and
country together, comfortable homes can be constructed for an
average of $1,000 each. Two hundred thousand homes could be
constructed for the sum wasted, and two hundred thousand homes
means homes for one million people. I suppose it is a very moderate
estimate to place the amount wasted in the construction of useless
railroads at $1,000,000,000, which, on the basis of our previous
calculations, would construct homes for five millions of people.
But this is probably altogether too small an estimate of even the
direct waste resulting from the application of a faulty political
economy to practical life. When the indirect losses are added, the
result is something astounding, for the expense of a needless
number of trains and of what would otherwise be an excessively
large permanent force of employés must be added. Of course, nothing
much better than guesswork is possible, but I believe that the
total loss would be sufficient to provide a greater portion of the
people of the United States with homes."
But it seems quite possible to make a closer estimate of the wealth
wasted by the construction of unneeded railways than the general one
above. There are now, in round numbers, 158,000 miles of railway in the
United States. The two lines named above have a total extent of nearly
1,000 miles; and while they are the most flagrant examples of
paralleling in the country, there is no small number of other roads in
various parts of the country which, except for their competition with
roads already constructed, would never have been built. Considering the
fact that the paralleling has been done in regions where the traffic
was heaviest and where the cost of construction was greatest, it seems a
conservative estimate to say that 5 per cent. of the capital invested in
railways in the United States has been spent in paralleling existing
roads. But the total capital invested in the railways of the United
States is about $9,200,000,000, 5 per cent. of which is $460,000,000. It
is also to be remembered that this 7,500 miles of needless road has to
be maintained and operated at an average expense per mile per annum of
$4,381, or a total annual cost of nearly $33,000,000. Taking Prof. Ely's
estimate of $1,000 as the cost at which an average size family can be
provided with a comfortable home, and we find that the cost of these
unneeded railways would have provided 460,000 homes, sufficient to
accommodate 2,300,000 people. Say that 3 per cent. of the cost of these
homes is required annually to keep them in repair, then this could be
furnished by the $33,000,000 now paid for the operating expenses of
needless railways, and an annual margin of about $19,000,000 would be
left, or enough to provide each year homes for nearly 100,000 more
people in addition. Of course, this is merely a concrete example of what
possible benefits we have been deprived by wasting our money in building
needless railways.
As a matter of fact, the money we have spent on unprofitable railways,
as well as those totally useless, has wrought us an amount of damage far
in excess of their actual cost. It is generally agreed by financiers
that the periods of industrial depression during the past score of years
have been largely due to excessive railway building. For in a period of
active railway construction, roads are built whose only excuse for
existence is that they will encroach upon the territory of some rival.
The capital invested fails to make a return. The loss of income which
ensues decreases the purchasing power of the community; and this
combines with the sudden loss of business confidence caused by the
failure of the enterprise to bring about a general panic and crash which
affects the whole community; and by checking enterprise and industry,
damages the country ten times the amount of the original loss.
The waste of competition is by no means confined to railways. The Sugar
Refiners' trust has raised the price of sugar and thus reduced its
consumption so much that they have permanently closed several of their
factories. Yet Claus Spreckels is now building a great refinery in
Philadelphia, the output of which is to compete with the trust. All this
capital invested in that which is not needed by the community is an
injury to the public. The French Copper syndicate so raised the price of
copper that it became profitable to work old mines of poor ore, which
under ordinary circumstances could not be worked at all at a profit.
Capital was expended in opening and refitting these mines, and in
preparing them for working; while other mines, able to produce the metal
at much less cost, were reducing their output because of their contract
with the trust.
In various cities of the country, millions have been wasted in tearing
up the streets to bury the unneeded mains of competing gas companies.
The electric light competitors are stringing their wires over our heads
and beneath our feet, and by covering the same district twice or three
times, double and treble the attendant evils as well as the cost.
The waste due to intense competition in trade may be avoidable or
unavoidable; but it is certainly of enormous magnitude, although the
fact of its being a waste is still little appreciated.
The waste due to labor monopolies is much better understood. The strikes
which paralyze industry and send want and distress in ever widening
circles are universally recognized to be a waste of wealth whose annual
amount is enormous. The cost to employers and workmen of the strikes in
the State of New York in 1886 and 1887, was $8,507,449. Reckoning from
this as a basis, it is probable that the total annual cash cost of
strikes in the United States is twenty or twenty-five million dollars.
The results of these strikes in decreasing the purchasing power of
employés and thus causing overproduction, and in discouraging enterprise
and increasing the cost of capital, serve to spread their effect
throughout the whole industrial community and thus cause an actual loss
and injury many times that borne by the parties directly engaged.
It is thus evident that the waste due to the intense competition which
the concentration of productive enterprise has brought about in modern
times is a matter of startling proportions. We are wasting and
destroying wealth all the time sufficient to go a long way towards
abolishing all the poverty in our midst; and the blame for this state of
affairs we are now able to place where it belongs.
Surely with a full appreciation of these evils, every honest and
patriotic man must be willing to use every endeavor to strike at the
root of the evil. The public indeed is, and has long been, a unit in its
opposition to monopoly; but in endeavoring to defeat monopoly it has
taken just the course which could give no permanent gain. Cities have
beggared themselves to aid competing railway lines only to see them
consolidated eventually with the monopoly which it was expected to
defeat. The multitude regard Claus Spreckels as a benefactor--and will
till he forces the Sugar Trust to divide their 25 per cent. profits with
him in return for the control of his refinery.
It is no benefit to us if in steering away from the Scylla of monopoly,
we be wrecked on the Charybdis of wasteful competition. We have been
trying for a score of years now to defeat monopolies by creating
competition; but in spite of a universal public sentiment in favor of
the reform, and notwithstanding the millions of wealth which we have
poured out like water to accomplish this object, monopolies to-day are
far more numerous and powerful than ever before. The people who are
groaning under their burden of oppression are anxious for relief. The
remedy they have so long and faithfully tried to apply has but made a
bad matter worse; and it is small wonder that, despairing of other
relief, they are adopting false and injurious plans for bettering
themselves which serve merely to extend the monopoly policy into all
industrial affairs.
We are threatened with a state of society in which most of the principal
industries will be wholly given over to monopoly. Those in each
occupation will band together to secure the greatest returns for
themselves at the expense of all other men; while the few occupations
which cannot thus combine in a monopoly--farming, and the different
sorts of unskilled labor--will be filled to overflowing with those
crowded out of other callings. Those who follow them will do so only
because the monopolized occupations are closed to them. Thus will our
farming population degenerate into a peasantry more miserable than that
of Europe, and our laborers be ground down to a level lower than they
have yet known. Is there a probability that such a state of affairs will
come to pass? There might be if the public were not keenly alive to the
curse of monopoly. But as it is, the greater danger is that through
ignorance a wrong course may be adopted for the cure of our present
evils, which will aggravate instead of curing them.