The Weinstock Lectures on The
Morals of Trade
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRIVATE MO-
NOPOLY AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP.By
John Graham Brooks.
COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM. By
Hamilton Holt.
THE BUSINESS CAREER IN ITS PUBLIC
RELATIONS.By Albert Shaw.
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN
PRIVATE MONOPOLY AND
GOOD CITIZENSHIP
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN
PRIVATE MONOPOLY AND
GOOD CITIZENSHIP
BY
JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS
PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL CONSUMERS' LEAGUE
AUTHOR OF "THE SOCIAL UNREST,"
"AS OTHERS SEE US," ETC.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1909
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published December 1909
BARBARA WEINSTOCK
LECTURES ON THE MORALS
OF TRADE
This series will contain essays by
representative scholars and men of
affairs dealing with the various phases
of the moral law in its bearingon
business life under the new economic
order, first delivered at theUniversity
of California on the Weinstock foundation.
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN
PRIVATE MONOPOLY AND
GOOD CITIZENSHIP
For a special purpose, I have had occasion to examine with care thecomments upon American life and institutions made by foreign criticsduring the period that extends from the later part of the eighteenthcentury up to the present time. If one puts aside the frivolous andill-tempered studies and considers alone the fairer and more competentobservers, the least pleasant of all the criticisms is that we areessentially a lawless people.
If the critic, like de Tocqueville and Miss Martineau, had sympathy and[Pg 2]admiration for us, the revealed lawlessness came as an astonishment,because it seemed to upset all sorts of pretty theories about democracy.The doctrinaires had worked out to perfection the idea that a people whocould freely make and unmake their own laws would, for that plainreason, respect the laws. Of course, a people who had laws thrust uponthem from above would hate them and disobey them. But a democracy wouldescape this temptation.
It was apparently an amusement of many of these writers to collect, asdid the jaunty author of "Peter Simple" in his Diary, interminable pagesfrom our own press to illustrate the general contempt for those lawswhich really [Pg 3]interfered with pleasures or economic interests. HarrietMartineau drove through Boston on the day when Garrison was beingdragged through the streets. The flame of her indignation burned high;but it burned with new heat when she found that the very best of Bostonculture and respectability would not lift a finger or pay a copper tohave the law enforced in Mr. Garrison's favor. Beacon Street and Harvardprofessors told her that the victim was a disreputable agitator, richlydeserving what he got. They seemed to think this English lady verycranky and unreasonable. The mob had the entire sympathy of the bestpeople in the community, and that should satisfy her. De Tocquevillehad[Pg 4] an awakening at a polling-booth in Pennsylvania that in the sameway disturbed all his presupposi