Competition; Monopolies -- United States; Trusts, Industrial
We have now found that monopoly is the inevitable result of the
concentration of competition in any industry in a few hands, if events
are allowed to take their natural course; that the only agent which has
either the right or the power to interfere in the case is the
government,--National, State, or Municipal; that government cannot
punish directly those who form combinations to restrict competition,
without exercising to an unprecedented degree its right to interference
with private affairs; while its attempt to deter men from establishing
monopolies by refusing its protection to them in their contracts to
restrict competition has proved to be but a slight hindrance to the
growth of monopoly.
There are, then, but two ways of preventing monopoly from establishing
itself and laying such a tax upon the people at large for the supply of
the commodity which it controls as it chooses. The first is, action to
reduce the intensity of competition so that the weaker competitors may
maintain their independence and not be forced to consolidate with their
stronger rivals. The second is, action to permit or encourage the
establishment of monopoly, and regulate by some means other than
competition the prices which it shall charge for the products and the
quality of product which it shall supply. These two general classes of
remedies which we find to be feasible we will discuss here only in a
general way. The first, reduction in the intensity of competition, has
hardly been tried in any form, and we cannot yet say what practical
means should be taken to put it into effect. We will return to this at a
later period in our discussion.
The second remedy is the one towards whose adoption we are rapidly
working. State and Interstate Commissions have already been established
to regulate railway monopolies; and in general it is true that the
people who feel the burden of monopolies are looking to the government
for relief, and expect it to take positive action for the control of
other monopolies as it has for the control of railways. It will be seen
that we have now arrived by a study of the various possible remedies for
monopoly at the same irresistible conclusion to which we were brought
by our study of the laws of competition. _The proper remedy for monopoly
is not abolition but control._ It seemed necessary to conduct this
independent investigation in order that no blind adherence to
individualism and no thought of the possible efficacy of other remedies
might lead us to doubt this important truth.
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