20 l
whether by such charges the railroad com seems, will consider that calling public in its pany or the gas company in question will nature; on the other hand, if virtual competi earn too much. In the same way the conten tion is proved as the regular course of things tion of the promoters of the trusts should be in a given industry, the law will hold all busi met by our law. It is not an answer for the nesses within it as private in their character. Standard Oil Company to point to the fact In the public calling, regulation of service, that upon the whole it has not advanced the facilities, prices, and discriminations is possi price of kerosene above the price at which it ble to any extent. Such monopolistic condi would have been fixed from time to time had tions demand such police; in no period has this been more apparent than now. In the ' competitive conditions prevailed during the whole period. It is still open to the general private callings, however, no such legislation should be permitted; in no epoch has it been public to point to the forty-eight per cent. dividends in the last years, to say that these more necessary to insist upon this. Competi tive conditions should be left without such are the proofs of the contention that, not restrictions. . '. . withstanding, the price of kerosene has been too high during the whole period. So far as one can see, virtual competition It is not pretended that what has been is at an end in many of the great industries, and virtual monopoly will henceforth prevail. suggested in this article should be taken as Therefore it must be said that the public has established. It is put forth merely as a now an interest in the conduct of these busi working hypothesis that a solution of the nesses by their owners; they are affected at trust problem may be found in the law gov the present time with a public interest, since erning the public callings. ... If this law of these agencies are carried on in a manner to public employment could be enforced against make them of public consequence. Therefore the industrial trusts, it may be hoped, a solu the corporations conducting these businesses, tion would be found for the trust problem. having devoted their property to a use in which the public has an interest, have in ef IN The Commonwealth Law Revinv (Aus fect granted to the public an interest in that tralia) for December, Wolfe Fink, in an arti use, and must submit to be controlled by the cle entitled "The Trend of Litigation and public for the common good to the extent of Costs," pleads for simplicity in procedure. the interest they have created. . . . On this point he says: A company that is engaged in a public A case should be founded (he says) on a business is ... entitled to a fair return statement of claim, a defence, and a series upon its investment. . . . of all those admissions of fact which are now Plainly there is no safe basis for the deter only wrung out of each side mutually by the mination of the rate except the actual invest operation of legal machinery. ment. It may be urged that the result of It is significant that a man can be tried on this rule will be to give to the public the ad the most important issue in the world—his vantage of operation under monopolistic life—without any pleadings, and without any conditions, in particular the elimination of interlocutory proceedings, and even an ap the wastes of competition. The reply is that peal from the verdict, when it lies, is pro this is precisely the method that should be vided for by the simplest, most expeditious pursued in dealing with the trust problem. and economical of processes; so it is hard to If the State permits monopoly is may de argue that quarrels about property and civil mand in return that the monopolist serve at rights demand the expensive decorations that a reasonable price. This has always been are now in the vogue. the law of public callings when the statement I am arguing for simplicity in litigation of it is made with discrimination. No rate because I hold that it means increase of liti per ton, no price per cubic foot is reasonable gation. It is a statistical fact that the great in itself; it depends for its propriety upon er the prosperity of a country the greater the
