i 4 4 CHARLES J. BULLOCK 



tuating prices and excessive investments of capital in certain 

 directions. The situation can be improved by the repeal of 

 unwise laws that intensify whatever unhealthful tendencies 

 competition may have; and, beyond that, relief can be found 

 in measures that will raise business management to a higher 

 plane. The moral and legal responsibility of our captains 

 of industry must be made commensurate with the enormous 

 powers that they wield; and the same moral restraints to 

 which, in the last analysis, even believers in combination 

 appeal, would prove a solvent of the very ills which monopoly 

 is supposed to remedy. Then sound judgment can be fostered 

 by the further development of industrial statistics; and, 

 finally, the substitution of a moderate policy in the place of 

 monopoly hunger, would be more helpful than all else. It 

 may be found, in the long run, that a willingness to allow one's 

 neighbors to five not only possesses more solid advantages 

 than the " economies of combination," but is the only basis 

 upon which private ownership and control of industry can 

 continue. As corporate enterprises in America grow older, 

 each company may cease to be dominated by a few men; 

 and the management may come to represent the average 

 opinion of the stockholders. Such conditions would prob- 

 ably favor the development of a "live and let live" policy. 

 In any event, it will prove easier to impress upon independent 

 business firms the saving grace of moderation than to per- 

 suade the monopolist to exercise his powers in a wise and 

 benevolent manner. Good despots there have been, un- 

 doubtedly ; but we have had no experience with human nature 

 that goes to prove that autocratic control is generally safer in 

 industry than in politics. 



