_ PRESIDENT CLEVELAND AND THE MONOPOLISTS.
RE is serious danger to capital involved in THERE President Cleveland's almost savage menace to the managers of Trusts," as the monopolies which have grown up in America are now called. The President, though an honest man, is an astute one ; his party does not want to alienate all wealthy men ; and before he employed such language as "unutterable hatred" to describe his attitude towards monopolists, Mr. Cleve- land must have been well assured that his supporters would approve proposals for active measures. The popular dislike of " Trusts "—that is, Rings—must, in fact, have grown savage ; and we are scarcely surprised to find this is the case. It is years since we pointed out that would occur graunrdovset;uggelenbe:twaetetennicapetalisetsreaante and statesmen ali'd that it would probably break out first in America ; and both predictions are now realising themselves. From the days of Moses, the quickest way to make a fortune has been to monopolise an article in strong demand ; and the conditions of life in America are singularly favourable to the creation of such monopolies. The territory of the United States is so wide, that railways are practically the only means of communication ; and those who control them, control to a large extent the movement of supplies. Then private fortunes have grown vast, and are held by men who cannot use them to found families, or rule society, or main- tain a sustained stateliness of life, and who consequently find the interest of carrying on gigantic transactions keener than any other. The European millionaire retires from the field just when the American millionaire plunges into the busi- ness of monopolising. The consequence is, that small com- binations of very rich men, and even single capitalists, can and do gain possession of the whole supply of valuable or necessary products, crush out all competition, ask their own prices, and practically destroy for the American people much of the benefit of their resources and their labour. Suppose, for example, one man or one syndicate owned all the wheat stored in England or likely to arrive ; then he could tax the whole people at discretion, even deprive them of the entire advantage of their wages, compelling them to consume the whole in indispensable food. The American monopolists have not yet seriously attacked wheat, probably under some fear of being lynched if they did.; but they have monopolised anthracite coal and petroleum—that is, in America, heat and light —sugar, whisky, salt, and a long list of smaller and less universally sought-for articles, one of them, which, from its effect on the South, is attracting dispropor- tionate attention, being cotton bagging. The monopolists regulate the output, fix the price, dictate the wages of the operatives, and when necessary, crush out competitors by underselling. Protected as they are against foreign com- petition, which, however, even if free, would only force on them larger purchases, it is found impossible for private traders to maintain a competition, and the whole American community is shorn, sometimes to an amazing extent, just as in Europe consumers of copper are at this moment being shorn, and as in London consumers of fine fish and fruit are always shorn, for the benefit of a minute number of rich men. It is probable, too, that it will be shorn much worse, foi the system is expanding as it becomes better understood ; the immense profits obtainable make the com- binations faithful to each other, and they are growing bolder under the consciousness of impunity. We see signs that they may grasp at tea, coffee, beer, tobacco, and even wheat, and thus enable themselves to mulct all men's incomes in amounts limited only by their own sense of how much the body of their customers will bear.
It is of little advantage to discuss the moral right of monopolists to charge what they like for articles they have bought in open market, though we hold a strong opinion upon that subject. It cannot be morally lawful for any man wilfully to create a famine, by burning, for example, all corn, even if it be his own ; and trading ceases to be just when it ceases to benefit both parties to the transaction. It is more important, however, as the monopolists will neither see that argument, nor regard it if they do see, to discuss whether any remedy or preventive is possible which shall not involve confiscation—that is, crime—or dangerous interference with the industry of the country. It is a most perplexing and complicated question. The Repub- lican idea seems to be to regard the " Trusts " as im- moral, which is, at all events, an arguable proposition, and declare all contracts essential to create them to be void, or even directly punishable ; but that remedy is a very doubtful one. It would not in the least hinder the action of the Jay Gould of the day, who worked with his own money and purchased for himself ; it would hamper the practice of storing up supplies, which is as essential to the safety of the people now as it was in the days of Joseph ; and it involves this evil, that the State, which has for its first business the enforcement of right between individuals, refuses in this case to do its ordinary duty. In practice, too, in America, the law would be baffled by the privileges of the States, which the people are not pre- pared, even in their own interests, to override by violence. Merely to make monopolising an offence would, again, be of little use, for evidence would be almost unprocurable, and the actual giver of orders might always be shown to reside out- side the jurisdiction. To seize the shares of the syndicates or the property of the capitalist, is to recur to the old and barbarous expedient of excessive fines, and might, more- over, be evaded in many ways ; and to refuse to the mono- polists the right of recovering debts is only to establish a national system of payment in advance. There are, we think, only two systems which would work well and be at the same time just, and one of them would, we fear, be in practice found unmanageable. This is, to apply the principle of requisition as would be done in a case of military necessity. A fitting tribunal having declared. that the people are in danger for want of an adequate supply—say, of salt, as the most indispensable of health-preservers—the Govern- ment would requisition salt from the holders of unusual stores at a normal price, and sell it at that price at all post-offices till the open market had been again filled. This method, which has been actually applied in many cases of wheat and salt monopoly, is completely effica- cious, the dread of its almost ruinous operation pre- venting the formation of dangerous combinations. It is, however, an extreme method, and requires that the Government employing it shall be perfectly honest, unusually well-informed, and in possession of complete control over the means of distribution. The other, and perhaps the simpler way, is to leave the matter generally alone, but to empower the Government, whenever assured that a monopoly is injuring the people, to act as it acts in England in the case of the railways,—that is, to appoint a Commission empowered to exercise a general control over the monopoly, and to fix a maximum of rates. That would work. It is not immoral if the monopolists know of the power beforehand. ; and if the authority were used with discretion, it would not harass or interrupt trade, of which speculation, it must be remembered, is a necessary part. It is a kind of war measure, and excessively objectionable unless a'necessity is clearly seen ; but something of the kind will be imperative if a syndicate ever seizes the wheat-supply, and an irre- sistible demand may arise long before that. Even here in England we greatly doubt if the body of the people would endure a monopoly of tea, which it would not only be possible but easy for a great syndicate to establish, though its members might have, like the Dutch with their spices, to burn up the very cheap teas.
Previous page
