INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION 811 



competition, tends to drag others down to his own mean ethical level, 

 so it would seem that in one state or nation we cannot rely upon 

 other states and nations to establish as high a level of competition 

 as we might desire. This subject has been agitated more or less for 

 three quarters of a century, but so far little that is very tangible has 

 been reached. An International Labor Conference was called by 

 Switzerland fifteen years ago, but Switzerland gave way to the 

 German Emperor, William II, and a congress was held in Berlin, 

 March 15 to 29, 1890. But the first international treaty designed to 

 protect labor is that between Italy and France dated April 15, 1904. 

 A beginning has been made and that is all that we can say. For- 

 tunately up to the present time it has not been clearly demonstrated 

 that any nation or even a state within a nation has suffered on 

 account of a high level of competition. Success in competition 

 depends upon the kind of man who is engaged in industrial pursuits, 

 and a high level of competition naturally means a larger and better 

 man, and consequently an ability to maintain one's own in com- 

 petition. Generally speaking it is those nations and those parts of 

 nations which have done the most for the workers that are most 

 dreaded in competition. It must be admitted, however, that as we 

 draw closer and closer together in our economic life and as world 

 economy gains relatively upon national economy, the problem of 

 international economic legislation, particularly international labor 

 legislation, gains in importance. 



The presence of monopoly in modern industry is one of the facts 

 revealed by a survey of industrial history; monopoly has existed 

 in the past in all civilized countries as well as in the present. In 

 a study of the industrial history of England we come upon the words 

 " monopoly " and " exclusive privilege " on almost every page of 

 that history. The ceaseless iteration of the terms becomes almost 

 wearisome. So far as monopoly itself is concerned, meaning thereby 

 exclusive control over some portion of the industrial field, we have 

 no new thing. The character of monopoly has simply changed with 

 the progress of industrial evolution. The significant monopolies of 

 our own time are those which are extra-legal. They have not grown 

 up as a result of the intention of the lawmakers nor indeed have 

 they come as a result of any conscious desire on the part of society as 

 a whole. Certain industries have shown monopolistic tendencies by 

 virtue of their inherent properties, and there is an increasing tendency 

 in civilized countries to recognize this fact and to make these pur- 

 suits, the so-called natural monopolies, also legal monopolies in order 

 to prevent waste and to secure certain gains resulting from mono- 

 polistic methods. It is recognized by the common law of England 

 and America and, I think I may say, by what corresponds to our 

 common law in other countries, that private monopoly uncontrolled 



