The Principles of Economics Part 52

4. _Greater publicity of corporation business is essential in the interest of the public._ With the interests of the investor are usually united more general public interests; but in many cases the two groups of interests conflict. Some persons favor control of corporations only to the degree needed to protect investors, but others place the policy on broader social grounds. The ability of a manufacturing corporation, at times, by threats of removal, to coerce unfair terms from the community, from its employees, and from those who supply it with materials, has led to the proposal that factories shall be forbidden to change their location without the consent of the state.

[Sidenote: Publicity to insure just prices]

Especially does it seem desirable, if it is possible, to preserve the benefits of compet.i.tion, by forbidding rates and agreements in restraint of trade. The old English idea, inherited in our law, is that the highest price that can be got in an open market, under ordinary conditions, is in general a just price. The control of any line of industry by a few corporations makes secret agreement much more easy, and thus replaces a general market-price by a discriminating rate, the highest that each individual will bear. A trust's price might still be a reasonable one if the seller met compet.i.tion in every market; but it is not reasonable when opposition is crushed by local and by individual discriminations. The methods by which this result is obtained shrink from the public gaze. They include secret agreements with railroad agents, a system of espionage on the business of compet.i.tors, secret special rates to the compet.i.tor's customers, to say nothing more of corrupt political influence. Publicity in corporation accounts is the first condition to a public and uniform price. The need thus to develop potential compet.i.tion is especially strong where a monopoly in a natural product exists. A more general recognition of the public nature of corporations will lead to further legislation and to the appointment of corporation commissions, as has been done already in some states.

-- II. DIFFICULTIES OF PUBLIC CONTROL OF INDUSTRY

[Sidenote: Growing need of social cooperation]

1. _The progress of industry is compelling greater social contact and more use of the agencies of government._ The numerous exemplifications of this general statement that have been met in the course of this study have a common cause. In simple conditions of industry, where most of the productive energies were given to securing the necessities of life, the struggle of men was with nature. Social relations then were simple and crude, such as those of chattel slavery. Now, most men get their livelihood from their bargains with other men. The relations of men with nature now are fewer, and less close; the relations of men with men are more numerous and complex. Efficient cooperation is a factor in production. Right social relations are more essential to industry than a fertile soil.

[Sidenote: The practical limits of legislative reform]

The social inst.i.tutions of any community are its answer, expressed in human consciousness and in formal laws, to this difficult problem of living together. Laws and ways for regulating industry may be good or bad. The good laws are those in harmony with human nature, giving the best motives for work and the greatest happiness both in the effort and in its reward. The merit of laws, therefore, is relative to human nature; those good for one kind of citizens may be bad for another. Men cannot be legislated into honesty without limit. The best that is possible is to enact laws that encourage the best in men as they are. A dishonest community neither has, nor is capable of choosing, men honest enough to supervise the others. Society cannot, by any amount of tugging and pulling on legislative boot-straps, lift itself above its own moral plane. But though the change in formal law cannot far precede, it may lag behind and r.e.t.a.r.d, social progress. Law tardily adjusted to social needs tempts and corrupts men. A time has never been when a higher wisdom could not have corrected some ancient grievance, have leveled some unmerited inequality, and, by making laws as good as men were capable of administering at the moment, have freed their energies for further advances. It is only a spirit of moderate expectation that will not be cast down by the results of legal "reforms." Hence it cannot be hoped that abuses will not appear in the attempts to regulate private industry. Fallible men make mistakes and commit injustice, sometimes greater than that which they are seeking to prevent.

[Sidenote: Local selfishness in industrial legislation]

2. _Legislative interference with industry presents temptations to community selfishness to misuse social legislation._ Community greed is not more lovely than individual greed. Many a citizen holds up a high standard for the public official and bewails the corruptions of politics when the legislator votes for his own interest instead of for his const.i.tuents' interests. Such a citizen rarely reflects that the responsibility for many legislative abuses comes back to the community and to the individual voter. Can the water rise higher than its source?

Is it a high conception of a representative's duty that he should out-talk, outwit, and out-vote his fellow-representatives, to get "a graft" for the men who elect him? In many communities, the one public question of importance is tariff legislation in favor of the local industries. This selfish issue bribes the electorate, and blinds it and its legislator to every question of the general welfare. A great industrial commonwealth steeps its public life in corruption when its voters sell their political birthright for a duty on iron. Many congressmen are so burdened with the task of securing some public expenditure in their district to help their const.i.tuents that they have little thought and less interest to give to larger public questions. If a local improvement will furnish labor and increase the value of surrounding property, though it is most uneconomic for the general community, the representative is expected to labor hard to secure it.

Many citizens see little harm in "log-rolling" by the legislator,--that is, in his voting for a law without merit in order to get another law that his const.i.tuents want. The guilt of this worst form of bribery comes back to the community that forces its representatives to such a course, sinking public morality to a lower level.

[Sidenote: Political corruption in industrial legislation]

3. _The power of the legislature to affect private fortunes presents strong temptations to public representatives._ That the legislator is so often true to a high standard of public duty, goes to ill.u.s.trate the familiar truth that the individual moral code is better than that of communities. That some individuals betray their trust is less surprising. The Credit-Mobilier scandal, in connection with legislation in aid of the Union Pacific Railroad, implicated many congressmen. A few years ago, in one of the greatest states, it was discovered that an innocent-looking bill, relating to the rights of property-owners on streams, practically involved the gift, to a ring of men, of a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of coal-lands, lying under the navigable streams, and belonging to the state. Such temptations for wealth-getting are too great for men selected solely for their ability to obtain offices and pensions for political supporters, and to secure cla.s.s-legislation for reputable citizens. The power of the legislative bodies to grant franchises and to permit the use of public property to corporations, constantly gives opportunity for dishonesty and occasion for scandal in the larger cities. The histories of the granting of franchises in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, St. Louis, and many other munic.i.p.alities, are full of black pages. Public duties are too heavy for the public integrity. Industrial power has grown faster than the civic conscience, and somehow the balance must be made even.

[Sidenote: Heavy duties of the courts]

4. _The power of the courts and of executive officers in the interpreting and executing of laws governing business has become greater._ With closer contact of men there is greater friction in social relations, and litigation increases. Fortunes turn on the result of a civil suit. While juries often are corrupt, yet it is remarkable how well the courts have kept their integrity in the midst of great temptations. Professional pride and the n.o.ble traditions of the English judiciary strengthen the individual's character on the bench, not infrequently transforming a dishonest lawyer into a just judge; but popular elections, selfish interests, and the social forces of wealth and ambition make the task at times too heavy.

[Sidenote: Integrity needed in public officials]

The executive branch of government is necessarily intrusted with great power, increasing with the extent of social regulation. The Secretary of the Treasury has discretion as to the sale and purchase of bonds, and thus can affect the rate of discount and the selling price of securities. One man's decision, if known in advance, makes possible fortunes for private pockets. A recognition of the importance of these facts, which are typical of a great cla.s.s of facts, must help to develop a higher sense of public duty. Patriotism has been thought of too narrowly. The enemies of early society were outside its borders, and the citizen who traitorously gave them aid was held in abhorrence. Now, independently, in many quarters is voiced the conviction that the greatest enemies of society are within its borders, and that political corruption is the modern form of treason. A higher conception of civic virtue is required to meet the added tasks of society. Public official control must be united with private industrial control in a way to present the fewest temptations to the betrayal of public trust. Now, as never before, must be felt the wisdom of Emerson's words: "The best political economy is the care and culture of men."

-- III. TREND OF POLICY AS TO PUBLIC INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

[Sidenote: Recent growth of state socialism]

1. _There has been a large increase of state socialism in recent years._ The term state socialism, broadly understood, includes all the forms of public partic.i.p.ation in industry that have been pa.s.sed in review: ownership by towns, cities, state, or nation; laws regulating the freedom of contract; agencies to inspect conditions and to enforce the laws; commissions to supervise and control corporate industry. From every direction comes evidence of the increase of state socialism within the past twenty-five years. To those accustomed to think of the spirit of the Germanic races as that of individual liberty and enterprise, it seems remarkable that this increase has been greater among people of Teutonic origin (Germany, England, America, Australia) than among those of Latin race. The change seems to be a part of the movement of democracy, even the measures of Bismarck in Germany having been taken to ward off the demands of the radical party. The mere name of socialism no longer frightens the citizens of a free state, and when men of strong individualistic spirit even claim with pride that they are socialists, the meaning of that term is becoming very vague indeed.

[Sidenote: Varieties of socialism]

2. _State socialism must not be confused with collectivism, or radical socialism._ The word socialism is so variously defined that the earnest student sometimes despairs of getting a clear understanding of it. The thought of socialism ranges from the simplest form of state interference, such as the support of public schools and public fire-departments, up to complete public ownership of all industry. It is well to describe as radical socialists those who would abolish private property, and would strike at the very root of the existing order of society. The modern form of radical socialism originated among German thinkers of the school of Karl Marx, but it has many supporters in other lands. The typical radical socialist claims to possess the only pure brand of social reform, disdains any interest in state socialism, and scoffs at state control as mere temporizing, as not even a single step toward radical socialism.

[Sidenote: Aim of state socialism]

The typical state socialist agrees that these measures do not logically force him toward the extremer view. He is at heart an individualist, believing that the motive forces of society are in human character, not in governmental machinery; but he seeks to prevent some kinds of compet.i.tion, to put other kinds on a better basis; "to make the rules of the game fairer," but not to suppress it. According to this difference in ultimate plan, men and present measures can in general be cla.s.sified.

Yet one view sometimes shades into the other in the life-history of a single individual. Believers in moderate interference sometimes move toward the extreme, and the most radical thinkers, sometimes with no less honesty, become, with broadening experience, more and more moderate. It would be surprising if any one who is thinking and growing in social philosophy should succeed in so exactly adjusting to each other all his opinions, as to be absolutely consistent at a particular moment in his views on social policy.

[Sidenote: Unripe social philosophy]

3. _It is not safe to predict from present evidence a continued trend toward extreme social control._ Social prophecy is fascinating. Men like to answer out of their ignorance the question, Whither are we tending? A deeper study of social law should give this power, but it is not won by hasty generalization. Unripe social philosophers a.s.sume that because the theory of biological evolution is correct, the particular theory of social evolution which they choose to invent or accept is unimpeachable.

Radical socialism is the exaggerated statement of a present social need.

It is a bridging with hope, not with experience, of the chasm between reality and the dreams of the unsuccessful.

[Sidenote: Progress of social control]

[Sidenote: True Aim of social control]

It is true that many evidences point to an increase in social control for some time to come. The laws, the inst.i.tutions, the prevailing morality of society, have not kept pace with industrial growth in this period of sweeping change. What is seen, however, is a small arc of the curve of progress. Much of the social regulation in the Middle Ages was similar to that which is now increasing. Legislation by gilds and privileges of private corporations hedged industry about. A reaction against this in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought on national and state control, and state interference of another kind rapidly increased until the time of Adam Smith. Then a strong reaction came, and the next period of fifty years saw far less of interference.

The years from 1825 to 1840 were those of the greatest state socialism ever seen in America, but the results were so unfortunate that a violent reaction followed. The recent great increase of state activity is not likely to be continued indefinitely. The path of progress is a spiral.

There are forces already at work creating a resistance to any great extension of this movement. Compet.i.tion of the healthier sort cannot be suppressed without paralyzing results. Inequality and the opportunity for ability to realize itself cannot be destroyed. The social regulations must be of a sort to liberate the best energies of men, not to enchain them. If the evils of state regulation increasingly appear to outweigh the benefits, a limit must be put to the movement. While social control may aid in lifting production and compet.i.tion to a higher and more moral plane, the ability of society will refuse to be ruled by the standards of the weak and inefficient.

CHAPTER 57

FUTURE TREND OF VALUES

-- I. PAST AND PRESENT OF ECONOMIC SOCIETY

[Sidenote: Definition of economics recalled]

1. _The meaning and scope of economics can be better seen at the end than at the beginning of its study._ The proposition with which this inquiry opened may well be recalled in the closing chapter. The words of the formal definition of economics should at this point convey a fuller meaning. In the wide range of subjects pa.s.sed in review has been sought the answer to one question: What determines and affects the values of good?

[Sidenote: Influence of economics on practical life]

Perhaps now also can be better appreciated what the influence of such a study might and should be on practical action. At times economic students have gained the ear of statesmen and rulers, and have exercised much influence upon practical politics. It is sometimes bemoaned that economists have to-day so small a direct part in the government of our republic. They certainly have a greater part to-day than they had twenty years ago, but if they had not, there would be small occasion for regret. The immediate influence of the specialist on those in authority is at most times less in a republic than it is in a monarchy, at those rare times when a ruler shows the students his favor. That influence in America is mostly indirect, but it is no less sure and lasting. The results of the earnest pursuit of economic inquiry in the universities and outside of them are already appearing, not in dramatic ways, but in the more subtle, surer form of an intelligent public opinion.

[Sidenote: Examples of mistaken social prophecy]

2. _Economic science has not reached a stage that permits of much prophecy._ Prediction is sometimes given as the test of science. This test, however, is one that only astronomy can meet in any remarkable degree. Chemistry can tell much of what will happen in the laboratory, but nothing of the date of future powder-mill explosions. Geology answers the question "What?" with surmises, and "When?" with an estimate of a few million years more or less. Is it surprising that in human affairs still less prediction is possible? There are countless unmeasured factors in human action. Such generalizations as are possible must be based on actions that appear and reappear with practical constancy. Though a number of facts unite to suggest some conclusions as to the immediate future, the experience of the last century bids one beware of sweeping predictions. The close of the French Revolution was a period marked by much speculation regarding the future of society. The optimists, with faith in the perfectability of human nature and of society, believed that all social ills were due to bad government; if despotism were but overthrown, man's nature would develop, untrammeled, to perfection. The economists of that day were sceptical, because, looking deeper, they saw sources of misery in the scantiness of man's environment, and in the sloth, ignorance, and incapacity of human nature. The pessimists--the communists, and socialists of that day--seeing the same evils, had other explanations to offer. While the economists of that day believed the conditions of poverty and misery to be inevitable, the pessimists p.r.o.nounced them unendurable, and advocated a radical social change as the only hope of saving the ma.s.ses from starvation. In such a variety of mutually contradictory views there must have been much error, but likewise much truth if it could be disentangled.

[Sidenote: Economic prophecies of the nineteenth century]

3. _The unexpected changes in transportation and in industry altered the course of economic development in the last century._ Much of the economic theory of that day appears absurd in the light of history. The inventions of the period, from Adam Smith's writings to Ricardo's (1776 to 1820), were mostly for use in manufacturing. This suggested to the minds of that time the progressive cheapening of cloth, iron, pottery, and of all other products of machinery, but not the cheapening of food.

Indeed, the situation in western Europe then suggested strongly the opinion that the products of the soil would steadily become more difficult to get. The railroad was not of practical importance until after 1830; the steamboat was not applied to ocean travel until 1837.

The opening of a rich continent and its annexation, by these new agencies, to the available resources of the older countries were not dreamed of. It was not fully appreciated that a great change in social standards, controlling the growth of population, was in progress. This was the panorama of the progress of society as seen by both the conservative economists and the socialists of less than a century ago: continued invention, an increasing population, low wages, scanty food, growing wealth for the few, and growing poverty and misery for the ma.s.ses.

[Sidenote: Unexpected course of development in the nineteenth century]

4. _The actual course of economic development in the nineteenth century falsified the predictions alike of optimists, economists, and pessimists._ Not foreseeing the great supplies of natural resources soon to be made available for the older countries, the men of that day naturally thought of the supply of land as limited and fixed. Supply in the economic sense means the amount available at the given time in the market; but despite the great areas since brought into the world-markets, the false idea of a century ago still persists in the text-books, and shapes economic reasoning. It is vain to say that the circ.u.mstances have been unique and that the general principle is still valid. Much of the so-called orthodox economic a.n.a.lysis was essentially erroneous as applied to the conditions of the past century; it is erroneous to-day and will be so for years to come, if it ever fits the facts. New continents are about to be opened. The building of railroads the length of South America and to the center of Africa will make available new mineral wealth, rare woods, enormous forests, and some of the greatest food-producing areas on the globe. Population in Christendom has increased more rapidly than ever before in the history of the world, but it has not overtaken the progress in resources. The rate of increase of population is slackening. The result of this combination of events has been a general rise of the conditions making for popular welfare. Despite the problems and the abuses that every new change brings, the civilized world undoubtedly is more prosperous to-day than ever before. The greatest misery and discontent is in the more backward communities. This is past and present; what of the economic future? Is the present condition a normal one--is this prosperity likely to grow or to decline? Thus far, surely, the economic student may question the oracles; for though the distant future is veiled from man's view, the role of economic theory is to show causal relations, to convert mystery into reason, and thus to give a lamp to the feet of the present.

-- II. THE ECONOMIC FUTURE OF SOCIETY