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It AR H Vol. 10, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL, H. C, March 27, 1902. SO. 22. THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC i ASSOCIATION. CAROLINA WINS. D. P. Stern and R. R. Williams Win the First Debate with Johns-Hopkins. The first of the series of annual debates between representatives of the University of North Carolina and Johns Hopkins University took place in Baltimore on. the evening of March 13th. The question was: "Resolved, That modern trusts threaten the future welfare of the American people." Johns Hopkins had the affirmative and was repre sented by Messrs. H. W. Plagge meyer and Harvey B. Stone. The University of North Carolina was represented bj' Messrs. D. P. Stern and R. R. Williams who supported the negative. Synopses o f the speeches of Messrs. Stern and Wil liams are here given. We very much regret the fact that we are unable to give the speeches deliv ered by the Hopkins debaters, as we have not been able to obtain true copies of them. Mr. Stern spoke as follows: "Whatever the Trust is or may be it has to do with business, a legiti mate . phase of life, hence the only question can be is the Trust a legi timate expression of business life? This must be settled in accordance with business principles. It must be .settled by business men. The business man always works to per fect his business methods that he may .become supreme in his particu lar line of business. To accomplish this it has always been necessary for him to organize his industrial forces into an institution that would conform to the needs and conditions of the age i n which h e lived. Changing and progressive industri al conditions have caused the evolu tion of business from the individual producer to the firm and from the firm to the small corporation. And the transition from the small corp oration, to the large corporation or Trust js just as natural and neces sary a step in the evolution of busi ness .... as the transition from the individual producer to the firm. For in the last few decades business has been making great strides for ward. The possibilities and extent of business have increased a hun dred fold. The vast expanse of the universe,, has . been made the market place for the remotest factory. To meet these colossal demands colos sal business organizations Trusts--are necessary. Hand in-hand with this extensive development of trade has come the demand of the home consumer for better goods at lower prices. The old competitive insti tutions tried to meet these demands and the result was overproduction, cut-throat prices, depression, panic. The life of the business man was at stake. For self preservation a fur ther conservation of industrial ener gy r was necessary. In answer to this we have the Trust, a combina tion into a large corporation for the purpose of establishing a permanent money-making business. It has entrenched itself in and to lay per meates our indu-trial system. ! Thi success of the Trust -may be best explained by the fact that the Trust is an application to industry of the principle of organized combination,. the principle that is one of the great civilizing forces of our life.: The purpose of the Trust, the use lqi the principle, is to secure maximum ef ficiency in production and distribu tion, for only by efficiency can it establish a permanent mouey-mak mg business. ,1 he I rust comes nearest to the realization of this be cause maximum production and ad ministration of the largest mass are always cheapest. By organizing into the Irust the business man can runs only the best plants and these to their full capacity, can fix the standard of quality by using and selling only the best, can afford op portunity for experimentation, can utilize every bit of wraste into the manufacture of by-products, can tide over temporary reverses, can secure the advantages of comparative ac counting and administration, can save large amounts in cross country freights.dispense with uselessadver tismganda useles sselling force in short the Trust gives the business business man efficiency in produc tion and distribution. Such an in stitution cannot threaten ou future welfare for the interest of' the business man is the interest of the people; as the one thrives so thrives the other. Indeed trust success in business is, dependent upon good service to the community at low ra tes. The only trust that have succeeded, , the ones that can suc ceed are the ones thus managed. Unless the Trust do sell goods at low rates the demand will be cur tailed resulting in increased cost of production and lessened profit:latent capital will spring into activity and do , for the community what the Trust have failed to do. If the Trusts unduly raised prices, how ever little, it might have a boom but it would lose a business. That the Trust managers believe that a business is' better than a boom is shown by the fact that t:ie greater part of the Trusts have lessened prices. Thus the Trust by econo mies inherent in its nature, can, must and does increase the purchas ing power of the American repub lic. By so doing it benefits the laborer in his capacity as a - consu mer. But it goes futher and in creases the number of dollars at the command of the laborer for the prosperity of employer and employee flow from the s ime fountain, the fountain of cheap and efficient pro duction and distribution. The trust is the most efficient and distributor hence the value ot the laborer's services, his wages, must be grea ter'than the old institutions. ( That the Trust does benefit the laborer is evident by the absence of strikes the increase in wages, and the gen e ial attitude of laborers towards the Trust. But Trust influence does not stop here. It moves on to th raw producer in that it provides an outlet for our surplus agricultura products. Thus the growth o Trusts and the revival of the ma terial prosperity of all classes in our industrial society nave ; come hand in hand. Indeed the Trust has perfected our industrial life. A perfect industrial life is essential to our political, social and economic welfare, and we may well be thank ful that our industrial Smith?, our Morgans and our Schwabs have with the sledge hammer of organi zation beaten out upon the anvil of progress an economic instrument that insures our future welfare in that it harmonizes the wealth pro ducing forces of our country, in that it places the tnanufactvrer, the la borer, the consumer, squarely, on dollar and declares unto them "Per feet thyself." Mr. R. R. Williams was second on the negative and spoke as fol lows: My colleague has shown you that trusts can never threaten our future welfare. My object shall be to show you that they have decidedly advanced it, because, First, they have made our welfare more secure and Second, they have made it more universal. For the one thing that has hither to destroyed our industrial securi ty has been our great commercial panics, l hese panics have been caused by the chaotic system of modern com petitive production. To eliminate this evil, therefore, we must regulate our production to meet our consumption. And that is what trusts have done. For all of their factories are under one man agement. That management knows the consumption of society and reg ulates the production to meet that consumption. Hence in ust so far as you adopt trusts, you give to business a stable basis. And that is the very essence of our prosperity, bor with stability guaranteed, industry has naturally undertaken more Jfigfantic enter prises. These have created more gigantic opportunities- And these positions are necessarily open to every man in America, according to us ability. But not only have trusts opened up these greater op portunities, but they have also trained our young men to grasp those opportunities, by increasing their individual initiative. For in trusts everything is based on per sonal responsibility, and advance ment depends upon ability. That is the system of trusts, and it is that system that has reversed socie ty and made the poor bovs of a gen eration ago, our present industrial eaders. And along with this opening for business tai nt has come a still wid;r opportunity an opening tor society whereby it may find a safe investment for its money. For trust stocks, absolutely safe as they are because of their, freedom from strikes, overproduction and ruinous competition, are placed upon the open market, where any man can buy them without asking any other man's consent. And statistics show that the number of stockhold ers in trusts is greater than it was in the same industries before the trusts were fotmed. That, then, is the policy of the trusts the widening of the oppor tunities of the laborer on the one hand and of the comimmitv on the other. And it is these forces that are solving our future welfare. For it is they that are making America the industrial leader of the world. For trusts, by creating greater industrial opportunities, have produced Schwabs ;md Hills and Morgans. And it is upon these men that our indusrrial ieadership now depends. For the cheap labor of Europe can be offset by the more perfect organization found in trusts. And it is for this reason that since the formation of trusts, America has jumped from the fourth place in the rank of nations to the undisputed leadership. And, if we have failed to interpret the cause of this, our enemies have not. For all European writers declare that trusts have proved America's com mercial salvation. And it is to this dominance that we owe our present greatness as a nation and prosperi ty as a people. For never has there been such an abundance of the com forts of life as among the American people of today. It is to trusts, therefore, that we must attribute our pre-ent prosperi ty and with it, also necessarily our social weirare. r or tne abundance of the comforts of any people is a sure test of the social and intellect ual development of that people. For to obtain social development man must be given the means with which to obtain it. And that means is wealth. Our true policy, then, hould be to place the man above the dollar, but to place him al -o in reach of the dollar. For without hat, he can never accomplish for liimself any advancement in culture or intelligence. And upon that rests also our po itical. welfare. For the greatest political corruption is among the ig norant and degraded and the least among the elevated and enlightened. We contend, therefore, that while there are in trusts incidental and emporary evils that must come as the natural accompaniment ot every human deve'opment, the real, inher ent and permanent forces in them are inevitably making for the ad vancement of mankind, For by larmonizing the boundless resour ces of our God-given nature and the superb organization of our intellec tual men, they have given to the ac cumulated I noughts o f ages, the ong-needed momentum of properly directed wealth which has reani mated those thoughts and trans formed them into a civilization so fraught with renewed opportunities and possibilities, renewed ambitions and incentives, as to make it better to be the humblest citizen of Amer ica than the despot of any ther country." i
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 27, 1902, edition 1
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