vi PREFACE 



transportation, distribution, and marketing. It 

 has increased prices. It has discouraged agricul- 

 ture. Tribute is exacted from the consumer at one 

 end of the Hne and the producer at the other. 



It reduces the output of wealth of all kinds. 



It limits the opportunities for labor and keeps 

 down wages and salaries. 



What we are most in need of is freedom; freedom 

 of access to the hundreds of millions of acres of land 

 that are held out of use; freedom of access to ade- 

 quate transportation; freedom in distribution, in 

 marketing, in competition all along the line. Mo- 

 nopoly stifles. It strangles the labor and industry 

 of the nation. It short-circuits the efforts of the 

 manufacturer and the farmer. Colossal as is the 

 output of wealth in this countiy, the possibilities of 

 production have scarcely been touched. The talent 

 of the country is not free to apply itself as it would 

 if the land and resources were opened up to use. 

 Freedom is the great need of America, freedom from 

 monopoly in all of its forms, but most of all in its 

 control of the land, of transportation, of credit, and 

 of distribution. 



It is not the tribute that monopoly exacts, it is 

 the embargo on production that is most costly. 



These evils can only be corrected by law, by legis- 

 lation. Exhortation will not bring relief. Nor will 

 criminal proceedings, trust-busting, or regulation of 

 prices. We have tried this kind of regulation for a 



