AN ANCIENT CUSTOM AGAIN TO THE FRONT.
A FEW centuries ago governments were wont to set the prices of things—wages, live stock, agricultural products, etc. Under later policies this was not deemed legitimate business; it was a species of paternalism in government that did not harmonize with liberty on the part of the masses. As freedom of action gained recognition, the law of supply and demand became the common law, and has been deemed the only proper method of estimating values among civilized peoples. But there is a strong tendency toward a departure from this principle, and it is one of the most prominent omens of a radical change in the character of our government. The law of supply and demand is being perverted from the law of natural demand and natural supply to a condition of manipulated supply and a consequently agitated demand. At times when there is a greater natural demand, the natural supply is cornered and withheld, so that, no matter how ample it may be in actual quantity, the available or manipulated supply is comparatively small. Thus the natural demand is augmented, while the natural supply is restricted. This is the result of monopoly—the trust system in business on the one hand, and union-laborism on the other hand. Only the principle of monopoly, tolerated by the government, could produce such results. Now comes the proposed remedy—the much-lauded cure-all—arbitration. It is well known that two parties can not arbitrate unless both parties consent, so we hear more or less talk of compulsory arbitration. What does that mean?—It means that the government, state or national, shall provide by law for arbitration, and, as has been done in some instances, appoint arbitration commissioners. And what does this lead to?—Well, for instance, there is a disagreement about wages; the parties can not agree on arbiters, or, for some other reason, the government has to settle the matter; and what is that but the government fixing wages for a given kind of work? Should the labor-union system become general, and should the capital-combination system become a little more firmly established, and the compulsory arbitration system become the generally recognized basis of industrial harmony, there will, consequently, be established the government's paternal control. When it begins the work of fixing prices, there will be no logical end to it. Then what would be a remedy for industrial extortion and tyranny?—The remedy would be in the Golden Rule if the spirit of it were in the people. But the Golden Rule, being the essence of the second table of the law of God, is "weak through the flesh." It can not operate where the will is against it. If this were indeed what some claim for it, a "Christian nation," there would be no capital trusts or labor trusts, or any problem that the parties in interest could not solve to the satisfaction of all. As this is not a "Christian nation," the civil government must act as a regulator. Now we may not be able to say just what the government is able to do under present circumstances; but we all know that there was a time when such conditions did not exist in this country, and if the government had prevented the rise of monopolistic trusts, both of capital and labor, instead of tacitly fostering them, it would not now be on the road back to the ancient policy of prescribing valuations for the people. Prohibition of dishonest, tyrannical methods is a far more logical protection of natural rights than futile attempts to regulate evils that have become rooted and grounded by toleration. It is hardly probable that the government will retrace its steps; for, in addition to the paternalism popularly called for in settlement of the capital and labor controversy, it has also started on the line of compulsory religion, and is being urged on to further dictation in this line. Both these movements indicate a wide departure from original principles; they are ominous signs of the times. The conditions to which we have been gradually advancing in the last quarter century are not by any means the least potent agencies in causing the "perplexity" that the nations are to experience just before the coming of the Lord. Verily, "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."