The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Conflict between Private Monopoly and Good Citizenship, by John pptx

The Project Gutenberg EBook of TheConflict between Private Monopoly and Good Citizenship, by John Graham Brooks This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The

Conflict between Private Monopoly and Good Citizenship, by John Graham Brooks This eBook is for the use of anyone

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Title: The Conflict between Private

Monopoly and Good Citizenship

Author: John Graham Brooks

Release Date: October 31, 2009 [EBook

#30375]

Language: English

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CONFLICT MONOPOLY AND CITIZENSHIP ***

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The Weinstock Lectures on The

Morals of Trade

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRIVATE NOPOLY AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP By

MO-John Graham Brooks

COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM By

Hamilton Holt THE BUSINESS CAREER IN ITS PUBLIC

RELATIONS By

BY

JOHN GRAHAM

BROOKS

PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL CONSUMERS' LEAGUE AUTHOR OF "THE SOCIAL

UNREST,"

"AS OTHERS SEE US," ETC.

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge

1909

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF

CALIFORNIA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published December 1909

BARBARA WEINSTOCK

LECTURES ON THE MORALS

OF TRADE

This series will contain essays by

representative scholars and men of

affairs dealing with the various phases

of the moral law in its bearing on

business life under the new economic order, first delivered at the University

of California on the Weinstock foundation.

For a special purpose, I have had

occasion to examine with care thecomments upon American life andinstitutions made by foreign critics duringthe period that extends from the later part

of the eighteenth century up to the presenttime If one puts aside the frivolous andill-tempered studies and considers alonethe fairer and more competent observers,the least pleasant of all the criticisms isthat we are essentially a lawless people

If the critic, like de Tocqueville and MissMartineau, had sympathy and admirationfor us, the revealed lawlessness came as

an astonishment, because it seemed toupset all sorts of pretty theories aboutdemocracy The doctrinaires had workedout to perfection the idea that a peoplewho could freely make and unmake their

own laws would, for that plain reason,respect the laws Of course, a people whohad laws thrust upon them from abovewould hate them and disobey them But ademocracy would escape this temptation.

It was apparently an amusement of many

of these writers to collect, as did thejaunty author of "Peter Simple" in hisDiary, interminable pages from our ownpress to illustrate the general contempt forthose laws which really interfered withpleasures or economic interests HarrietMartineau drove through Boston on theday when Garrison was being draggedthrough the streets The flame of herindignation burned high; but it burned withnew heat when she found that the very best

of Boston culture and respectability would

not lift a finger or pay a copper to have thelaw enforced in Mr Garrison's favor.Beacon Street and Harvard professorstold her that the victim was a disreputableagitator, richly deserving what he got.They seemed to think this English ladyvery cranky and unreasonable The mobhad the entire sympathy of the best people

in the community, and that should satisfyher De Tocqueville had an awakening at

a polling-booth in Pennsylvania that in thesame way disturbed all hispresuppositions about us

It is not my purpose to bristle up andstrike back at these critics of Americanbehavior Amid possible exaggeration,they are telling a great deal of truth about

us It is a truth that it has its own natural

history A long adventurous border-lifewas in some respects the great fact of thenineteenth century in moulding ournational habits A large part of thepopulation lived under conditions where

no appeal to legal restraints was possible.There were no courts,—no police Thewhole constructive work of life wasthrown so absolutely upon the man fightinghis life-battle alone, that excessiveindividualistic habits were formed Everyself-reliant instinct was developed until itbecame a law unto itself They do not,says de Tocqueville of the Americans, askhelp They do not "appeal." Theyunderstand that everything rests withthemselves Every immigrant of those dayshad come from what Freeman calls

"overgoverned" countries They escaped

from highly organized social constraints tohave their fling on a continent asillimitable in extent as it was in the prizeswhich its natural resources offered Thatsuch a large proportion of the strong livedthis free border-life through the entirecentury has resulted in making a standard

of individualistic action almost dominant

in the community

There is, first, this natural history ofextreme individualistic habits and of theirreactions on our whole national life.There is, further, the almost universalconcentration on wealth-production as ameans of winning what average men mostcrave in this world What the strong of anyrace work for is not, ultimately, money, it

is social power This power has many

symbols in a monarchy There are titlesand decorations for which armies of ablemen will do hard public service for years.This same passion is as lively in theUnited States as in Germany, but weexclude the symbols Wealth everywheregives power, but with us it is almost theonly symbol that has wide and practicalrecognition This passion, working in avigorous people upon the resources whichthe United States offers, has intensified thecompetitive struggle in industry to adegree hitherto unknown in the world.This struggle has absorbed the thought andstrength of the people to an extent withoutknown parallel.

It is the magnitude and stress of thiscompetition that have bent and subdued

politics to business ends The engenderedbusiness rivalries in this game developqualities that are indifferent to laws.

The last ten years of investigation havedisclosed one further reason forheedlessness of law The chances ofpromotion among the abler and moreambitious young men in the service oflarge concerns are known to depend on thefact of a good showing in theirdepartments Can they keep downexpenses? Can they enlarge and maintainsales? These have been the supreme testsfor rapid and sure promotion When theseare done, few questions are asked bymanager or director Among the largestinterests in this country, and among allinterests that have to do with franchises

and legislation, skill to evade laws mayhave the highest value in a fight againstcompetitors A magnate recently accused

of law-breaking denies it roundly, and itmay be with honesty When the evidence

of long-practiced frauds against the laws

in his own business is produced, he insiststhat he never knew it But he also turns onthe light: "I do not ask my heads of

departments how they succeed; it is

enough for me that they do succeed." Thisexplains, but does not excuse, the guilt

I make no use here of theory I am thinking

of definite large business interests inwhich the evil will remain as common as

it is inevitable so long as the business isunregulated and its shady practicesconcealed from public authorities and

public opinion In some of our hugeconcerns it is the traditional procedure tobring the various heads of departmentstogether at regular intervals and pit themagainst each other as if running a race forlife What is the showing that each canmake against the other? Has this one cutdown the cost of his product; has hereduced this or that item of expenditure;has he got the most out of the workmenunder his charge; has he been able tododge practical difficulties—legal,sanitary, or any other—that stood in hisway?

In this relentless contest before theirsuperiors, the foreman or agent learns thatthe one key to favor and advancement isthat no other shall make a better showing

If he can safely get this superior result out

of his labor group, that is one way; if hecan reach his end by introducing childrenunder age, or by any other questionabledevice, the temptation is there in thesubtlest form it can assume for the averageman When, recently, a swarm of sharppractices came out in another of the greatconcerns whose products reach half thehomes of the nation, the man at the topdoubtless told the truth when he replied:

"In my position, it is not my business toknow those details I have no time exceptfor the results sent in." Thus the president

or director stands apart from and abovethis underworld of tolerated illegalities.Here, then, are three reasons for lack ofobedience to the law,—the long border

struggle, the excessive concentration uponwealth-exploitation, and the ways throughwhich successful subordinates arerewarded in severely competitiveindustries.

But another, weightier reason must now beadded,—namely, our private monopolieswith their influence and reactions on ourwhole community life In the earlier andlooser stages of development, when vastresources still remain unappropriated,private monopoly may aid a city or anation At first no public protection of fishand game is necessary, but the pressure ofpopulation will eventually compel acommon rule to which the individual mustsubmit As surely as a growing townsooner or later requires a common water-

supply, a common drainage, commonsanitary provisions, and regulated hackcharges, just so surely will the privatemonopoly somewhere and at some timerequire strict social control,—that is,control from the point of view of all of usand not from that of a few money-makers.

A generation ago the stripping of ourforests did not matter vitally The intereststhat were to suffer from this stripping hadnot appeared To-day a forestry policyderived absolutely from the common,social point of view has become anecessity so commanding that the nation'sattention is at last caught A generationago no one had even guessed at thefranchise-value of our streets,—not eventhose of New York city After JacobSharp had made these values known, a

struggle began which reads like anArabian tale It is a story of business andpolitical corruption that has gone on invarying degrees in scores of our cities and

in scores of great industries where strongmen have been fighting to get control ofmines, forests, lands, and oil, thedevelopment of which depended onfavorable transportation The carryingtrade—whether of goods or people—isnever to be omitted in this story Untilvery recent years, this mother ofmonopolies, the railroad, was thought of

as a purely private possession A dozenyears ago one of our ablest railroadlawyers (often before the United StatesSupreme Court with great cases) told me

it had long been one of his intellectualamusements to try to force into the heads

of railroad presidents the fact that theirownership of that kind of property wasprofoundly different from the ownership

of a horse or a grocery store "I finally,"

he said, "had to give it up." It meantnothing to them that society had given themstupendous privileges which qualifiedtheir ownership These franchise-grantsonce in their pockets, everything that wasbuilt upon them came to be used in anyconceivable game to enrich the owner.Properly informed persons no longerdiscuss whether it is right and moral toallow railroad magnates to do as they like

—to act as if these properties werestrictly a private possession We know, atlast, how society has suffered fromleaving this form of ownership so long

without social control We have seen thedevastating conflict between unregulatedpossession of this kind of property and allthe higher welfare of the community If weadd to the railway the common citymonopolies of lighting and transportation;

if we add industries in iron and steel,much of our mining, oil, and forestexploitation, all of which, in connectionwith railways, take on inevitably the form

of monopoly, we have the wholebuccaneer-group that has done upon ourpolitics the deadly work, which we know

so well that its retelling is a thing to avoidfrom very weariness

Though a dozen other cities would serve

as well, look for a moment at themonopoly of the New York street-

railways A people, careless and ignorant

of their own interests, so far give away therights in their streets, that a few men getthem into their possession With the griponce fast upon this power, it becomes not

a machinery primarily to serve the people:primarily it becomes an enginery to filchvast unearned increments from the public

It becomes a device for gambling, with thedice so heavily loaded in your favor thatyou cannot lose You change power fromone kind to another; you merge one linewith another or with the whole; you createholding companies; and at every changeyou recapitalize Your million dollars isturned into five or ten or twenty millions,

in order that multiplied dividends takenfrom the public may drop into privatepockets Every bit of bookkeeping meant

for the public eye is a mass of jugglery Ifyou are frightened by the challenge of anindignant public, the most importantrecords are destroyed Surplus fundsbelonging to the stockholders are freelyloaned to personal friends or put toprivate speculative ventures.

This shell-game has gone on decade afterdecade, so gayly that it seems as if it were

a delight to the American people to havetheir pockets picked And yet, let us say itover and over again, the pocket-picking isnot the worst of it That the people'smoney should be used to debauch theirown chosen representatives in city andstate legislatures is the uttermost evil Partand parcel of the uttermost evil is theresulting suspicion and distrust that eat

their way deep through the masses of thewage-earning world Not to mention theirown trade papers, or the socialistic sheetswith the scandals of high and low finance,wage-earners have only to read thecapitalistic sheets, presidential messages,and summarized reports from scores oflegislative committees, in order to believethat almost everything investigated—insurance, city traction companies, miningsyndicates, railway finance—is heavywith rottenness Any one interested enough

to run through the files of the distinctivelylabor press at the present moment, willfind a body of convinced opinion aboutthose who control us industrially that has

an extremely ugly look The labor-world

is drawing the only natural inference it canfrom the data given

How often we have seen within a year ortwo the lament that the efficiency of laborhas lessened in many of our greatindustries! What in Heaven's name can weexpect? If that labor-world believes what

is everywhere cried on the housetopsabout the crooked exploiting devices ofthese monopolies, why should not itsinterest and its fidelity fall off? The law ofcause and effect will work here as itworks elsewhere in the universe Labor islearning that unfair industrial privilegeflouts every essential principle ofdemocratic government The real iniquity

of it is hidden from us until we see thatsecrecy, cunning, and unscrupulousnessmay be good pecuniary assets Yes, thishas to be plainly stated A man whoshould happen to have the people's

interest really at heart could not be anactive partner in the worst of thesemonopolies The unscrupulous, the menbent upon the stock-watering game andtheir own immediate enrichment, wouldcrowd the honest men to the wall Everyline of least resistance is with the get-rich-quick type of manager To hold hispower and to corrupt us politically; toappropriate continuous unearnedincrement through overcapitalization, hemust work not for the public good, butlargely against it In most free competitivebusiness there is no such inherentantagonism between private and publicgood.

The privileged monopoly is found not only

in the lighting and transportation

combinations in cities like New York,Philadelphia, St Louis, and Chicago: it is

in a whole nest of industries—oil, mining,and timber—which are interknit with ourrailroad system

Here is the real antagonism betweenmonopoly and good citizenship.Anthracite coal is not a business apart—it

is a railroad business; and if there areabuses, they cannot be corrected apartfrom railroad regulation There is nothingthat we now need to know so thoroughly

as that the railroad is the one key to thecontrol of all monopolies, including thosethat often last just long enough to gut theproperties according to get-rich-quickprinciples The waste of the public wealthunder this concentrated stimulus is the

darkest economic fact, as the ugliestpolitical fact is the corruption of officialsand legislators Think of a product so vital

to the future as the forests; and thenpicture, if you can, the waste anddespoiling of this strictly common wealththat has gone on, and still goes on, inconnection with unregulated railroadaffiliations,—properties, larger thanseveral Eastern states, stolen, and thenburned, and skinned, and devastated, sothat two generations cannot repair theloss! And now by highest federal authority

we are warned that our timber supplycannot last twenty-five years without anew controlling policy

Yet it is not, of course, the monopoly that

is the evil It is solely the way in which

we have allowed the monopolies to beowned and controlled We have admitted

a kind of irresponsible proprietorship thathas so debased political methods in theUnited States that we are made at thepresent moment (in this one respect) awarning to the world

Last year a social investigator returnedfrom New Zealand He said: "I found theirable men chiefly anxious to avoid theexample of the United States Theirproblem is to develop a rich andprosperous industrial life, but escape therottenness of American politics Whetherthey succeed or fail, their purpose isgreat." Their plan is to use the strength ofthe government to prevent the formation ofprivate monopolies such as have

debauched our politics until we havebecome a mockery among the nations.How long we ourselves have talked ofpolitical corruption as if it were separablefrom the privileged monopolies inbusiness! That we now see this sorrypartnership as it is, and are daily moreand more aroused by it, and bent on itsdissolution, is the surest sign of progress,

as it is the surest sign that democracy neednot fail

Again and again we wonder how long itwill require for the sovereign people tolearn a lesson so simple How many morefacts or revelations do we need?

The other day a liberal theologian told methat he had been preaching some elemental

truths about a larger religious life Asturdy old listener, who knew they weretruths, but didn't quite like to adjusthimself, said to the preacher: "I guessthat's all true that you've been preaching;but—I don't more'n half believe it."

We, too, know these truths about themonopolies; but we still hesitate,—westill act as if we didn't "more'n halfbelieve it." But if the monopoly as such isnot an evil,—if the evil is the practice ofpolitical abuse by irresponsible privateownership,—what are our alternativeswhen the question of remedies is raised?Are we forced to the logic of the socialist,

—that the city or state should take thesemonopolies out of the categories ofprivate property, owning and managing

them directly for the people? The socialisttells us that these combined interests intransportation—mines, oil, timber, etc.—have become a power with which city andstate cannot cope; that we are at thepresent moment governed by thesemonopoly interests, and shall continue so

to be governed until the state has absolutepossession of them

To this claim of the socialists, one reply isobvious Every immediate political dutynow before us is committed to theprinciple of regulation For some years

we are going to try that We are not going

to assume that mines, oil, timber,elevators, and our vast transportationsystem with its connecting monopolies,are all to be taken under state

proprietorship and managed as our postalsystem is now managed For any futureworth discussing, we are going to use ourstrength to regulate these monopolies inthe public interest In that decade when thepeople are at last convinced that thesemonopolies are more powerful thangovernment; that we have no hope ofcurbing them into obedience before thelaw,—in that decade the cry will go up forgovernment ownership on a scale farwider than that of railways and telegraphs.

At this point I do not wish to hedge orshuffle That the younger of my hearerswill see far more government and cityownership than we now have, seems to me

so obvious that the discussion of it is noteven interesting Our government must