Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1912 — SIMPLY ENFORCE LAW [ARTICLE]

SIMPLY ENFORCE LAW

EFFECTIVE METHOD OF DEALING WITH TRUST PROBLEM. “Passing of Competition," of Which So Much Has Been Made, Exists Chiefly in the Imagination of Those Who Wish It. I - eminent gentlemen have recently assured us that the days of competition have forever gone by. Judge Gary would recognize that supposed fact, and entrust to the government the great task of seeing that there is fair play. Mr. Carnegie takes much the same view. Mr. Perkins advocates a “business court” which shall tell Big Business what it may and may not do. Mr. William Allen White is greatly impressed with the “economies of production” that follow the passing of competition. And,only the other day the Contributing Editor rebuked those who “believe that it is possible by strengthening the antitrust law to restore business to the competitive conditions of the middle of the last century,” and declared that “any such effort is foredoomed to failure, and if successful would be mischievous to the last degree.” All of which is pure assumption, and assumption that has little to rest on. The world has known monopolies before, monopolies of a peculiarly complete and odious character. We are not the first people that has had to deal with the trust problem. No doubt there were men back in the Elizabethan days whq were convinced that “competitive conditions” could never be restored. But they were restored, , and have pretty generally prevailed in England to this day. There was not much conjpetition under the old regime in France, society being little more than a combination of nobles and church dignitaries to rob the people through restraints imposed on trade. But those restraints' were swept away. What warrant have Mr. Rooseyelt and the rest for thinking that today’s attempts to restore , competition are “foredoomed to failure”? But there is the further suggestion that they can not be restored through the enforcement of the anti-trust law. The New York World calls attention to the fact that the recent reduction of cable tolls by the Western Union Telegraph company was promptly met by the Commercial Cable company, which Intimates that “the specter at Washington is responsible” for the Western Union’s action. So here we have a plain case of competition, competition due to the attitude of the adminlstra-: tlon as to law enforcement. The “specter at Washington” Is evidently the Sherman law as it is being enforced by President Taft. There seems to be a mistake Is it not possible that the error is on the part of ttibse wise men who would substy,ute for competition the tender care of a government that might —we do not say that would —license and sanction such restraints on competition as that which resulted from the absorption of the Tennessee Coal and Iron company by the steel trust? The World says: “Judge Gary is still pleading for a Little Father. • * Not that a good trust like the steel trust would harm a single hair of a rival’s head or knowingly commit any conceivable wrong, but human flesh is weak and government is all-wise and always beneficent. There used to be captains of industry when the steel trust was formed.. 'Now they are begging to be sutlers. They want a Red Cross nurse in a government uniform to take command. They must be saved from thertiselves. They must have some one who will lead them not Into evil; but deliver them from temptation.” In other words, the demand is for protection and insurance against competition.—lndianapolis News. ‘