The Conflict between Private Monopoly and Good Citizenship

The Conflict between Private Monopoly and Good Citizenship is a socioeconomic commentary by John Graham Brooks. Brooks was an American sociologist, political reformer, and author. Excerpt: "We, too, know these truths about the monopolies; but we still hesitate,—we still act as if we didn't "more'n half believe it." But if the monopoly as such is not an evil,—if the evil is the practice of political abuse by irresponsible private ownership,—what are our alternatives when the question of remedies is raised? Are we forced to the logic of the socialist,—that the city or state should take these monopolies out of the categories[Pg 27] of private property, owning and managing them directly for the people? The socialist tells us that these combined interests in transportation—mines, oil, timber, etc.—have become a power with which city and state cannot cope; that we are at the present moment governed by these monopoly interests, and shall continue so to be governed until the state has absolute possession of them."