MONOPOLY AND THE LAW
MONOPOLY AND
THE
147
LAW
By Frank B. Kellogg AS government has developed from the tation, which threatens a revolution of chaos of absolute individual freedom, portentous import. It has always been the the formation of rules of government, and case that, where either under the guise of the selection of those rules and principles, law, or by corporate or individual aggrandize forming the body of the laws most efficient ment, the people have been excluded from to the higher development of man, his social any employment or commercial enterprise; and industrial condition, have been grad from the right to own and cultivate land, ually going on. Governments are not made, and equally to participate in business enter nor are the principles of law, on which they prises, they have abolished such conditions are based, discovered or written in a day; either by revolution or by law. We are confronted with that proposition to-day. they are the result of those same evolution ary processes going on among men; they Under conditions of great prosperity, indi are the expression of their wishes, desires, vidual and aggregate wealth, in the form of and needs, taking concrete form, developing corporations, has reached such colossal pro into customs, and from customs into general portions that they threaten to undermine the rules of action, and finally often into written power of the state, and to close the avenues of enterprise to the people generally. Many laws. phases of this control and regulation have been The problems which are to-day princi pally agitating the public mind are not new. agitated. Laws have been passed, enforced, They arise in different forms, and some of and many devices have been declared un them under conditions entirely unknown lawful. But there yet remains the most to the centuries which have gone before. vital question, whether corporations or individuals, by unlimited acquisition of But the principles are the same. Corrup tion in politics and administration, which wealth and power, may control one or all tend to destroy the integrity of the state; of the industries of the country, and thereby exclude the people from an equal participa the control of public facilities, and the regu tion in such enterprises. To my mind, the lation of monopolies, in order that the ave nues of employment, industry, enterprise, power of the Congress and of the state is and commerce may be kept open, are not ample, under the constitution as it exists, new to the world, and have been solved in to meet this question and prevent this their various aspects as they have arisen monopoly. The question is: Can we, under from time to time. The evils of monopoly our constitution, so regulate and control have in the past, and are to-day agitating property that a single person, or a single the public mind in many countries and in corporation, may not monopolize, or attempt many phases. It was one of the principal to monopolize, the commerce of the coun causes of that great cataclysm called the try, by the purchase and acquisition of "French Revolution." in which disappeared properties engaged in such commerce? As forever, in France, arbitrary government, originally understood among English-speak feudalism, monopolies, and oppressive taxa ing people, monopoly was a grant from the tion. Monopoly of land, the exclusion of Crown of the exclusive right to engage in the people from participation in ownership, any particular trade or commerce. During and from the right, as proprietors, to pursue the reign of Queen Elizabeth, these monopo agriculture for a livelihood, is to-day one lies became so enormous and oppressive of the most fruitful causes of Russian agi as to alarm the people. One of these grants
