Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. TUESDAY, MARCH, 16, 1909 AMERICAN MONOPOLIES.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4386, 16 March 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

TUESDAY, MARCH, 16, 1909 AMERICAN MONOPOLIES.

This above all—to thine own self be true , \nd it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The fact that the Standard Oil prosecution has collapsedandthat the Standard Oil Trust will be thereby stimulated in its pleasing little attempt to demolish European com* petition calls attention once more to the American faculty for doing things on a collossal scale generally. The optimistic views expressed by a representative of the Standard Oil Company as to the acquiescence of Europe and England in this breezy piece of American enterprise seems to find colour in the cables of last week, which contained the report of Mr Asquith’s speech in defence of Free Trade at the Free Trade Union’s demonstration in Queen’s Hall London. One has only to read of the thousand acres which one section of the new plant of the Company will almost cover, of the seventy-five thousand miles of pipe lines already in existence, to which thousands of miles more are to be iadded, of the two railroads and the oil fleet, required in the manufacture, and distribution of the oil to the ends of the earth, to begin to realize something of the hugeness of the Standard Oil Company’s undertaking- Whatever uneasiness may affect the head “ which wears a crown,” one is disposed to opine that that uneasiness is quite matched by the uneasiness found lurking in the pillow of him who is elected to the American Presidency, with the interest and well-being of a great people to conserve in the teeth of such vast monopolies as this. President Roosevelt only about two months ago, in refusing to approve a Bill granting power to construct a dam on the James River spoke most strongly as to the necessity for conserving.the interests of the people against monopolists, in guarding the natural resources of the country, and keeping within Federal control the grant of such franchises eilher to individuals or to corporations. He objected to the Bill on the grounds that it was framed to confer a monopolistic privilege, while it did not contain security for the public interest. He held that the Government had the power to impose such conditions as it deemed fit, even to imposing a charge and time limitation. He pointed out that already of the five million, three hundred thousand horse-power of water-power now in use in the United States, thirteen big enterprises probably controlled more or less directly in various ways 33 per cent, of the whole. He stated that this consolidation had been accomplished within five years, and that the tendency it represented would if allowed to proceed unchecked, mean a repitition, in the hydro-electric power industry, of the oil industry, but with much graver results so far as it affected the people. And the President declared that he would not sign a Bill granting such privileges as those indicated in the Bill which he had now vetoed, unless that Bill contained also conditions safeguarding 'the rights of the people, for he held himself responsible io the people to prevent monopolists getting possession ofj their resources, so far as his power . permitted. This is but reasonable! and right. When we behold the] power which these great American monopolies seem able to obtain t and when we view the present collapse of the Standard Oil case, and consider the efforts it is putting forth J to exploit the world’s oil trade we do not wonder at the extreme forms of socialism, and the unfortunate fomentation of class hatred which this kind of thing fathers in the United States, and unfortunately in Canada also. Mr Taft’s view that more legislation is needed is but the natural outcome of his desire to have his Presidential power extended as far as possible to enable him to. carry out to the full Mr Roosevelt’s policy of conserving the rights of the people against the monopolists.