DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42346#0240
228
THE NEW COMPETITION
It is bad enough when those engaged in an industry see
that it is not growing, that it is probably falling off; it is
hopeless when they plainly see that it is actually vanishing,
that in five, ten or fifteen years it will be no more.
The cause may be actual disappearance of raw material,
locally or generally; or it may be discoveries or inventions
that take the place of older processes. Electricity is playing
havoc with steam, and electric devices are supplanting many
older machines and tools.
In many cases factories are changed over to meet the
new requirements, but in others they cannot be and owners
face total losses; labor must look ahead to periods of idle-
ness and poverty.
Under existing social conditions and prevailing eco-
nomic theories most of these consequences cannot be
avoided, but some might be if the law permitted and helped.
Given a situation such as described the law should not
only permit, but encourage men getting together to face the
situation wisely and intelligently.
A government “by the people, of the people and for the
people” ought to look out for the people just a little unless
the familiar phrase is bombast; it should make even more
careful investigations of all industries and occupations than
it now does; it should note and publish the first signs of
fundamental changes in both demand and supply; it should
give the first warnings of impending trouble.
In a measure governments of the most advanced coun-
tries do these things—not with any large economic and ethi-
cal outlook, but mostly for temporary gain.
A wise government would go farther and when it de-
tects signs of inevitable decay and dissolution encourage the
coming together of all interested so that by cooperation dis-
astrous results may be minimized.
In this country state and federal laws forbid cooperation
the object of which is to restrain trade, yet with a vanish-
THE NEW COMPETITION
It is bad enough when those engaged in an industry see
that it is not growing, that it is probably falling off; it is
hopeless when they plainly see that it is actually vanishing,
that in five, ten or fifteen years it will be no more.
The cause may be actual disappearance of raw material,
locally or generally; or it may be discoveries or inventions
that take the place of older processes. Electricity is playing
havoc with steam, and electric devices are supplanting many
older machines and tools.
In many cases factories are changed over to meet the
new requirements, but in others they cannot be and owners
face total losses; labor must look ahead to periods of idle-
ness and poverty.
Under existing social conditions and prevailing eco-
nomic theories most of these consequences cannot be
avoided, but some might be if the law permitted and helped.
Given a situation such as described the law should not
only permit, but encourage men getting together to face the
situation wisely and intelligently.
A government “by the people, of the people and for the
people” ought to look out for the people just a little unless
the familiar phrase is bombast; it should make even more
careful investigations of all industries and occupations than
it now does; it should note and publish the first signs of
fundamental changes in both demand and supply; it should
give the first warnings of impending trouble.
In a measure governments of the most advanced coun-
tries do these things—not with any large economic and ethi-
cal outlook, but mostly for temporary gain.
A wise government would go farther and when it de-
tects signs of inevitable decay and dissolution encourage the
coming together of all interested so that by cooperation dis-
astrous results may be minimized.
In this country state and federal laws forbid cooperation
the object of which is to restrain trade, yet with a vanish-