not to be blotted out by the brute law of the
survival of the fittest, but cared for as the noblest instincts of
humanity prompt.

* * * * *

I am well aware that the indictment which conservative critics will be
apt to bring against the plans for the equitable control of monopolies
presented in this chapter is that they are too novel, and that they
require too much of an upheaval of existing institutions for their
accomplishment. The conservative man is invariably in favor of getting
along with things as they are. The answer to be made to this is, that no
candid man who will make a thorough study of the present status of
monopoly and of the attempts to control it can be conservative. The
present status of monopolies is just neither to their owners nor to the
public. They are plundering the public as much or as little as they
choose; and the sovereign people are submitting to it and taking their
revenge by passing retaliatory laws intended to ruin the monopolies if
possible. These legislative "strikes" are thus especially well
calculated to foster extortion on the part of the owners of monopolies,
who naturally wish to make what profits they can before some piece of
legislation is put through to destroy the industry they have built up.

In contrast to this are the plans proposed in this chapter. They offer
to establish a definite relation between the public and the monopolies,
and a permanent and stable foundation for each industry they affect in
place of the present fickle and ever changing one.

There is another class of critics who may complain that the plan
proposed leaves too much power still in the hands of the monopolists,
and gives the government too small a part in their management. The
answer to this is very evident. We have found the cardinal value of the
system of individual competition to be that it tends by a process of
natural selection to bring the men of greatest ability into the control
and management of our industries; while the vital weakness in the
management of industry by government is the fact that the sovereign
people does not choose the wisest and most honest men to control its
affairs. Men may well say that if they are to be robbed it had better be
by a corporation, where innocent stockholders will receive part of the
benefit, than by dishonest officials of government.

The ultimate remedy for the evils of monopoly, therefore, lies with the
people. When they