Читать книгу Distributive Justice: The Right and Wrong of Our Present Distribution of Wealth - John A. Ryan - Страница 36

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In the literature of the Single Tax movement the phrase, "land monopoly," is constantly recurring. The expression is inaccurate; for the system of individual landownership does not conform to the requirements of a monopoly. There is, indeed, a certain resemblance between the control exercised by the owner of land and that possessed by the monopolist. As the proprietor of every superior soil or site has an economic advantage over the owner of the poorest soil or site, so the proprietor of a monopolistic business obtains larger gains than the man who must operate in conditions of competition. In both cases the advantage is based upon the scarcity of the thing controlled, and the extent of the advantage is measured by the degree of scarcity.

Nevertheless, there is an important difference between landownership and monopoly. The latter is usually defined as that degree of unified control which enables the persons in control arbitrarily to limit supply and raise price. As a rule, no such power is exercised by individuals, or by combinations of individuals with regard to land. The pecuniary advantage possessed by the landowner, that is, the power to take rent, is conferred and determined by influences outside of himself, by the natural superiority of his land, or by its proximity to a city. He can neither diminish the amount of land in existence nor raise the price of his own. The former result is inhibited by nature; the latter by the competition of other persons who own the same kind of land. To be sure, there are certain kinds of land which are so scarce and so concentrated that they do fall under true monopolistic control. Such are the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania, and some peculiarly situated plots in a few great cities, for example, land that is desired for a railway terminal. But these instances are exceptional. The general fact is that the owners of any kind of land are in competition with similar owners. While the element of scarcity is common to landownership and to monopoly, it differs in its operation. In the case of monopoly it is subject, within limits, to the human will. This difference is sufficiently important, both theoretically and practically, to forbid the identification or confusion of landownership with monopoly.

A notable illustration of such confusion is the volume by Dr. F. C. Howe, entitled, "Privilege and Democracy in America." He maintains that bituminous coal, copper ore, and natural gas are true monopolies, but gives no adequate proof to support this assertion. Moreover, he exaggerates considerably the part played by landownership in the formation of industrial monopolies. Thus, his contention that the petroleum monopoly is due to ownership of oil-producing lands is certainly incorrect; for the Standard Oil Company (or companies) has never controlled as much as half the supply of raw material. "The power of the Standard does not rest upon a direct monopoly of the production of crude oil through ownership of the wells."[49] Perhaps the most remarkable misstatement in the volume is this: "The railway is a monopoly because of its identity with land."[50] Now there are a few important railway lines traversing routes or possessing terminal sites which are so much better than any alternative routes or sites as to give all the advantages of a true monopoly. But they are in a small minority. In the great majority of cases, a second parallel strip or parallel site could be found which would be equally or almost equally suitable. Neither the amount nor the kind of land owned by a railroad, nor its legal privilege of holding land in a long, continuous strip, is the efficient cause of a railway monopoly. To attribute the monopoly to land is to confound a condition with a cause. One might as well say that the land underlying the "wheat king's" office is the cause of his corner in wheat. It is true that in a few of the great cities the existing railroads may, through their ownership of all the suitable terminal sites, prevent the entrance of a competing line. In the first place, such instances are rare; in the second place, the fact that there are several roads already in existence shows that competition was possible without the entrance of another one. The influence impelling them to form a monopoly for the regulation of charges is not their ownership of terminal sites. No sort of uniform action with regard to terminals would produce any such effect. The true source of the monopoly element in railways is inherent in the industry itself. It is the fact of "increasing returns," which means that each additional increment of business is more profitable than the preceding one, and that in most cases this process can be kept up indefinitely. As a consequence, each of two or more railroads between two points strives to get all the traffic; then follows unprofitable rate cutting, and finally combination.[51] The same forces would produce identical results if railroad tracks and terminals were suspended in the air.

Dr. Howe asserts that the monopolistic character of such public utility corporations as street railways and telephone companies is due to their occupation of "favoured sites."[52] How can this be true, when it is possible to build a competing line on an adjoining and parallel street? If the city forbids this, and gives an exclusive franchise to one company, this legal ordinance, and not any exceptional advantage in the nature of the land occupied, is the specific cause of the monopoly. If the city permits a competing line, and if the two lines sooner or later enter into a combination, the true source and explanation are to be found in the fact of increasing returns. Combination is immeasurably more profitable than cut-throat competition. Moreover, the evils of public service monopolies can be remedied through public control of charges and through taxation. Neither in railroads nor in public utilities is land an impelling cause of monopoly, or a serious hindrance to proper regulation.

Most of Dr. Howe's exaggerations of the influence of land upon monopoly take the form of suggestion rather than of specific and direct statement. When he attempts in precise language to enumerate the leading sources of monopoly, he mentions four; namely, land, railways, the tariff, and public service franchises.[53] Nor is he able to prove his assertion that of these the most important is land.

Nevertheless, land is one of the foremost causes. The most prominent examples of land monopoly in this country are the anthracite coal mines and the iron ore beds. Fully ninety per cent. of our anthracite coal supply (exclusive of Alaska) is under the control of eight railway systems which in this matter act as a unit.[54] According to Dr. Howe, the excessive profits reaped from this monopolistic control amount to between one hundred and two hundred million dollars annually.[55] In other words, the consumers of anthracite coal must pay every year that much more than they would have expended if the supply had not been monopolised. On the other hand, the formation of monopoly would have been much more difficult if the railroads had been legally forbidden to own coal mines. As things stand, railway monopoly is an important cause of the anthracite coal monopoly. Some authorities are of the opinion that a similar condition of monopoly will ultimately prevail in the bituminous coal mines. Iron ore has been brought under the control of the United States Steel Corporation to such an extent that the Commissioner of Corporations writes: "Indeed, so far as the Steel Corporation's position in the entire iron and steel industry is of a monopolistic character, it is chiefly through its control of ore holdings and the transportation of ore."[56] From this statement, however, it is evident that the monopoly depends upon control of transportation as well as upon ownership of the ore beds. If the former were properly regulated by law, the latter would not be so effective in promoting monopoly.

Speaking generally, we may say that when a great corporation controls a large proportion of the raw material entering into its manufactured products, such control will supplement and reinforce very materially those other special advantages which make for monopoly.[57] Prominent examples are to be found in steel, natural gas, petroleum, and water powers. In his "Report on Water Power Development in the United States," the Commissioner of Corporations (March 14, 1912) declared that the rapidly increasing concentration of control might easily become the nucleus of a monopoly of both steam and water power. Ten great groups of interests, he said, already dominated about sixty per cent. of the developed water power, and were pursuing a policy characterised by a large measure of agreement.[58] As a rough generalisation, it would be fair to say that in one or two instances, at least, landownership is the chief basis, and in several other cases an important contributory cause of monopoly.

Even an approximately accurate estimate of the amount of money which consumers are compelled to pay annually for the products of such concerns over and above what they would pay if the raw material were not wholly or partially monopolised, is obviously impossible. It may possibly run into hundreds of millions of dollars.