The Coos Bay times., September 26, 1908, Page 6, Image 6

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THE DAILY COOS BAY TIM ES, MARSHFIELD, OREGON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1908.
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Impracticable Democratic Propoii
tion for Trust Control.
Convincing Exposition of Fallacy of
Bryan's Panacea for Solving
Problems of Modern
Business.
From Gov. Hughes' Youngstown
ppeech. )
When we consider remedies that are
proposed for the trusts, we find our
selves journeying In h land of dreanw.
Again the magician of 1SOC waves his
wand. At a stroke difficulties disap
pear and the complex problems of mod
ern business are forjrotten in the fas
cination of the simple panacea. And,
as the free coinage of silver In the
ratio of 10 to 1 was to destroy the
curse of gold, m the new found specific
of equal perfection I to remove the
curse of Industrial oppression. The de
lusion of 190S is comparable only to
that of twelve years ago.
The first siigextiiui is that the law
li on Id prevent a duplication of di
rectors among competing corporations.
However advisable It may be to have
independent directorates of competing
corporations, It would seem still more
Important to have Itidejivndent stork
liolders, for a majority of the stock
holders of a corporation choose' the di
rectors. If a law were passed pre
venting the duplication of directors it
voulil easily l.e evaded in the selection
of men who would represent the same
Interests. The most oruHnry exper--lence
shows that It Is not necessary to
. -rve on a board of 'dlre'-tors in order
to control Its proceedings. Whatever
the advantage of mHt a law as Is pro
posed, It hardly rises to the dignity of
"remedy," or vindicates its title to n
place In an Imposing scheme of reform
outlined in a national plitform.
IStit the more Important proposal Is
"that any manufacturing fir trading
corjHirntion engaged In Interstate coiu
jncrce shall be required to take out a
federal license !efore It shall he per
mitted .to control as much as 2."i per
cent of the product In which It deals."
A license Is permission, and the object
of the remedy Is not to regulate large
businesses, but to destroy trusts. Hence
the supposed elliciency of the plan is to
le found In the prohibition of the con
trol by any such corporation "of more
than .V) per cent of the total amount of
nny product consumed In the United
States." This Is another delusion of
ratio.
It might le Interesting to Inquire
ATlnit Is the meaning of "any product
consumed in the United States." Does
it refer to a class of commodities?
And, If so, how shall the classes be de
llneil? Or does It refer to each sepa
rate article of commerce? And, If so,
Tvhat account does this proposal take
of tin? skill and Initiative of manufac
turers, who have built up a more or
Mcsh exclusive trade In particular ar
Ttlclns, often protected by trade-marks,
although In most active competition
with other articles designed for the
same general purpose ami seeking the
jaunts market? In a (Kslre to correct
-lhe evils of business are we to place
aui embargo upon honest endeavor
whose activities present none of the
iltuvtti requiring remedies? And, If
Slot, what statutory delinitlons shall be
flfnuud to be adequate and Just If we
3ay down our prohibition In terms of
-volume or ratio of business and not In
4erms of right and wrong? If wo
-adopt Mr. Itrynu's proposal, to what pe
riod of production Is the prohibition
to apply? Is the excess for a day or
tfor a month to be considered? Or Is
the average production for a year to ho
lakeu? And what system shall be de
vised by which suitable information
.anay lie furnished in the nature of dan
ger signals along the routes of trade
-so that the manufacturer may know
'when lie is about to exceed the pre
scribed ratio? He may Justly be re
quired to govern his own conduct, but
Uiow shall he be apprised of the con
duct of others upon which Is to depend
Mils guilt or innocence?
The patent laws confer a true
.monopoly In the exclusive right to nmn
.ufneturo nnd sell. Are these laws to
Che repealed because a "private mon
opoly is Indefensible and Intolerable?"
UD'IMi'h fruilu ItciiNouliiif,
An cxamplu of .Mr. llryan's reason
ins; is found In his statement that
'whon a corporation controls 50 per
cent of the total product It supplies
forty millions of people with that prod
met." There are, of course, specialties
vrhleh have a limited market and are
rtiwl by n relatively small number of
tthejjeoplo of the United Stales. More
Iuiib 30 per cent, ami indeed even as
lmu'h i HiO per cent of the trade In
such Articles may be In the control
of a particular corporation. This may,
In fact, be relatively a small corpora
tion. It may never have aspired to the
unsavory renown of a "trust." Hut by
prosecuting Its particular lino with
Udellty and meeting satisfactorily a
limited want ; or by reason of some
Secret processes or advantage of experi
ence, It may control the trade In a giv
en article of commerce. Or, suppose a
concern control the whole trade In
some useful byproduct which It has
found it advantageous to make, Is the
.trad to b prohibited?
The Democratic platform makes no
'.' "'"Iji "
THE SENTINEL
From tip Baltimore Anerican.
exceptions to cover such cases, and we
have learned that it Is equally "binding
as to what It omits."
If we could Imagine such a crude
prohibition to be enacted into law, and
to be regarded as valid, what would be
the effect? Mr. Bryan, with his usual
readiness, suggests that the concern
may sell as much of Its plants as are
not needed to produce the amount al
lowed by law. He spealcs as though
every manufacturing concern had as
many fully equipped units of produc
tion as would correspond to any given
percentage of trade which It might Ikj
required to lop off. Plants are not o
easily dismembered. Heduction In out
put means reduction In work, reduction
In the number of men employed nnd
curtailment of the ellUioncy of a going
concern. Let us suppose n concern
which controls SO per cent of a given
product that Is to say, makes and
sells i?S,CC0.(;(.O In value out of a total
trade in the product amounting to .10,
(XIU.OCO. Is It to be compelled to reduce
its output to f2,(X)0,C00 because only
$L.fl'0,(K.'0 In value are made by others?
Then, if It could sell a part of Its plant
on .Mr. Itrynu's theory, what should It
sell? Should It sell off enough to re
duce Its capacity to ?r,000,()00, and
allow three-llfths of its plant to remain
Idle until others developed a capacity
for handling the other $,",000,000?
Should It nsMinie that the total trade
will Increase and Is not always to re
main nt .flO.OOO.cOO, and hence retain
a larger portion of Its plnnt In Idle
ness? Or suppose a concern controls
100 per cent of the trade In some arti
cle, what plants shall It retain? It
can produce nothing until others pro
duce; but It may produeo an amount
equal to the production of others, nnd
It Iiojk's the trade will grow. What a
vision of business uncertainty and con
fusion, of Idle and Impaired plants, of
the ruin of worklngmen whose lives
have clustered around particular Indus
tries and who depend upon their con
tinued elliciency, Is presented by this
fanciful remedy for the destruction of
trusts 1
Apart from this, If the dissolution
were effected In the manner desired
and portions of plants could be sold
and were sold as suggested, to whom
would tho sale be made? Would it ln
necessarily to foes or to those ambi
tious to bo competitors nnd anxious to
take advantage of its plight?
This proposal In Its utter disregard
of the facts of business, in Its substi
tution of the phantasies of thu Imagin
ation for the realities of life, stamps
tho Democratic platform with the fatal
stamp of ISilO. The comment) and in
dustry of this country, the Interests of
Its wage earnors and of Its Interdepend
ent iiinshcs, who must rely upon the
stability of business, cannot afford to
give license to such vagaries.
In the solemnity with which this
proposal has been declared, and tho In
hlstenee with which It Is advocated, wo
llnd an appropriate test of the capacity
of our opponents to deal wisely with
the problems of tho day.
STANDS FIRMLY IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLAG.
HOW TAPT WAS SOUGHT BY
M'XIHLEY.
The Manner in Which the Hepubli-
j can Candidate Was Called to a
I Largor Sphere of Action.
I One afternoon early in 1000, when
Judge William H. Taft was dictating
a decision of the United States Court
In the Federal Ilulldlng In Cincinnati,
a telegram was placed in his hands.
, He tore off tho envelope nnd was sur-
prised to find a telegram from Presi
dent Wllllnm McKInley, reading:
I "I shall take it as a great favor if you
, will call on ma some time next week."
! Judge Taft guessed at the meaning-
' of the summons and guessed wrong.
lie went to Washington and was shown
, into n room at tho White House, where
he met the President and Secretary
Long of the Nay. Later, Ullhu Hoot,
, the Secretary of War, came In. Then,
! to use Mr. Tuft's own words :
"Mr. McICinley said that he wanted te
send mo to the Philippines to help in th
work of establishing civil government as
the army moved on. I thougdit of my
place on the bench and hesitated. lie
sides, I believed and said we could get
along without the Philippines,
" 'Hut we have them and must take
care of thom,' tho President replied.
" 'You are at the turning of the ways
in your life,' Mr. Root then observed.
'The bench is the easy road. You can
stay there and be comfortable. On the
contrary, the Philippines will demand per
sonal sacrifices and risks and much hard
work, but you will have an opportunity
of doing your country a very great ser
vice.' I went home, and argued the mat
tar for two weeks.".
The telegram to Cincinnati opened
tho door of American history to Wil
liam II. Taft and made him tho Repub
lican candidate for President of the
United States.
OIi!lK"tliiiH of Civil War.
Money Indebtedness Is not the only
obligation we Incurred and assumed
In the grent civil war. There was n
still greater debt, an everlasting obli
gation that could never be paid in full.
Hut In tho years that have followed,
the Republican party has Inaugurated
and developed pension laws under
which over three nnd one-half billion
dollars have been paid to disabled
veterans or to tho survivors of those
who gave their lives for their country
j and their Hag. This pension system, n
product of the policy of the Republican
party, has uo precedent in history nnd
no equal In Justice and generosity
among the nations of tho earth. Hon.
James S. Sherman.
Colonel Hrynu Inments the "dlserltul- '
nation that has been going on against '
the farmer" iu olectlug so few tillers '
of the soil to Congress and the Senate.
What troubles him chiefly, however, Is '
tlie discrimination which the whole
Amerlcau nation exercises nguliist a ,
cevtRlu farmer of Lincoln, Neb., In de-
dlnlij to elect him to the White J
House, New York Trlbmie.
TAFT COMES FEOM GOOD STOCK.
Family Banked Among the Plain
People for Many Years.
Tho Tn:tsthose who at present are
the Tafts hail ancestrally from Ux
brldge, Mass. They say that Tafts are
so thick in Uxbrldge that even a wom
an can't throw a stone without hitting
one.
Some years ago In 1S74, to be exact
then! was a Taft reunion in Ux
brldge, to which descendants of tho
original Robert Taft came Hocking
from nil parts of the country. One of
the conspicuous features of the affair
was u historical address by Alpbonso
Taft, father ot the present Republican
candidate. He traced the history of
various branches of tho family, and
when he came to the one to which he
and his children belonged he said:
"Our family have not embarked much
upon national politics, except that they
have shared In the battles of the coun
try when national Independence was
to be won, and also when the Union
was nt stake. Hut brilliant political
careers have not been characteristic of
the Tufts lu the past. It Is not safe to
say what may be in store for them.
There Is u tide In the affairs of men
and also of families."
This Is taken from the account of
the reunion published at tho time. Al
pbonso Taft would perhaps have been
somewhat dazzled If he could have fore
seen how quickly and brilliantly the
family would proceed to "embark upon
uatioual politics." He himself started
the turn of the tide which he predict
ed. It seems to be reaching Its Hood
in tlie career of the son who that year
'was entering Yale.
As Alphouso Taft described his Im
mediate ancestors one sees where his
son got certain characteristics. Peter
Taft (1715) was "a large, good-looking
man f magnanimous disposition."
He had four sons.
Aaron, tho candidate's nncestor, was
also bo magnanimous that he lost
money by Indorsing a friend's notes;
ho was a man "of great Intelligence
nnd Integrity." And then, gol:g some
what further hack, there was Captain
William Taft, who took Hlarney Cas
tle In tho sixteenth century "by blar
ney quite as much as by military
prowess." Good stock was Captain
Wllllnm from which to make a twen
tieth century Secretary of War Wil
liam. A Grand Iteeoril,
The Republican party Is not only
rich In men, but rich Iu practical and
benoflclal principles It Is rich too In
its record, In promises performed and
pledges fulfilled, aud so wo are for
party and party principles first nud
will acquiesce In the choice of the ma
jority, rallying around the standard
bearer who will carry us again to vlc
torj. Hon. James S. Sherman.
Mr. Hryan might make a hit In the
Hocky Mountain States by proposing a
federal guaranty of mining stock de
posits. Onaha Bee.
R EM EMBER
We Are Selling Steel Ranges at Cost
Pioneer Hardware Co.
F. A. HAGUE, Pres. M. D. SUMNER, Vicc-Prcs.
?Tv i i . , i t i i i i i , i ,n"
Given
With every $100 purrchnso from our store, wo will
give a 42-piece dinnor set entirely free. Oui'low pri
ces still continue one price to all, 'with every article
marked in plain figures, coupons will be given for
the amount of each purchaser. See our window
display nnd bo convinced it is worth your while.
J
P HOUSE FURNISHER
f FRONT STREET
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lTiTtftTTaat- f--t--t.t--. . t.-V.f.-f ..?.
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TV. 0. McOann
Eureka,
Eureka Paving Co.
Contractors for
BITUMEN PAVEMENT, BITUMEN AND
CONCRETE SIDEWALKS, an4 FOUN
DATIONS. '
The paving now being done in -Marshfield is
the product of this well knevvn firm. Every con
tract is backed by experience, capital and a guar
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a-::--K-K-8 ---::---
Builders
have just received
P&B
Deadening Felt
Use only the BEST roofings
Avoid all cheap substitutes.
C. E. NICHOLSON, Agfc.
Office at C. B. Ice Plant
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your stock of Are Irons, coal
scuttles, coal shovels and all
household
HARDWARE
It Is an excellent time for sup
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larly large, new and attractive.
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In Your Outing
You will miss It if you do not
carry
A KODAK
With Yon
We have them from $1 to $100
Full Line of Kodak Supplies
Catalogue Free.
Red Cross Drugstore
vt. i'i
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"IrIIii
Peter Belcher
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California
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Attention
a carload of
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Ready Roofing
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Buildinn Paner
Phone 731
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