PEEE TRADE AND SOCIALISM. 331
world would then "be necessary, and this is practically impossible.
In other part, this restrictive power arises from ability to monopolize natural advantages. This would be destroyed if the taxation of land values made it unprofitable to hold land without using it. In still other part, it arises from the control of businesses which in their nature do not admit of competition, such as those of railway, telegraph, gas, and other similar companies.
I read in the daily papers that half a dozen representatives of the " anthracite coal interest" met last evening (March 24,1886), in an office in New York. Their conference, interrupted only by a collation, lasted till three o'clock in the morning. "When they separated they had come to "an understanding among gentlemen " to restrict the production of anthracite coal and advance its price.
Now how comes it that half a dozen men, sitting around some bottles of champagne and a box of cigars in a New York office, can by an " understanding among gentlemen " compel Pennsylvania miners to stand idle, and advance the price of coal along the whole eastern seaboard? The power thus exercised is derived in' various parts from three sources.
1. Prom the protective duty on coal Free trade would abolish that.
2. From the power to monopolize land, which enables them to prevent others from using coal deposits which they will not use themselves. True free trade, as we have seen, would abolish that.
3. From the control of railways, and the consequent power of fixing rates and making discriminations in transportation.