- -"I " -
The Trusts and the People
SAM JONES in the Man afacturers'.
Record, Baltimore,
The large trusts a id com
binations already fort led and
being" formed by aggrega
tions of capital are consider
ed hurtful to the masses and
the common people. . This
is a theory. Theoretically,
a thing may be so, a id prac
tically it may be very untrue.
-When we speak or trusts
and combines we think of
the Standard Oil Trjust, the
Sugar Trust, the Tobacco
Trust, etc. When t
dard Oil Trust was
I was paying forty
gallon for kerosene
he Stan-
formed
cents a
il; I am
getting it now for ten
11 T I
cents
a ganon. i was
paying
twelve and one-half cents
for sugar several years ago,
but when the combines set
in we got it "at five and one
quarter. When the Whis
key Trust was organized I
was in hopes it wou d put up
whiskey where the Door dev
ils couldn't get it, but, they
have seemed to chec pen that
down to where they can pay
the Government $1.15 a gal
lon revenue on it and yet sell
it for $1.27, which demon
strates that they are making
it and letting thi public
have it at about twelve and
one-half cents a gal on.
There is no doubt about
the aggregation of wealth,
with brains controlling it,
that they can manufacture
any article cheaper than it
is or has been manufactured
on a small scale. The great
railroad combinations, many
think, will eat us 'up blood
rare. Occasionally
I get
on
a little jerk-water road that
is not in the combination,
t T l i 1 1-1
ana i want to aouDie my ac
cident policies and be satis
fied with a 15-milp-an-hour
gait and console myself with
the idea that I can ride all
day for a dollar, btt when I
get on the Pennsylvania or
Vanderbilt system of roads,
with their schedules forty
miles an hour, vestibule
trains, with parlpr cars,
sleeping cars, dining cars, I
have a hotel on wneels car
rying me towa rd inv destination-,
and all this for a
bout two cents a mile. Give
me the road that if in the
combine to carry me where
I am going.
Public sentimeiit
is the
safeguard that is
hrown a-
round all aggregations of
wealth and all coribinations
of interest. The Standard
Oil, the railroad combina
tions, and the Su ar Trust
are as sensitive to public o
pinion as the sno v-bank to
the rays of the sun. Trusts
and combines wilYnot hurt
the public, but stockholders
and bondholders may suffer
rli later on, when these great
bulky institutions become
5fJ unwieldy and fall with their
TfftTr fV.
- and men in
the United
States, perhaps
are interested in
not more,
the great
""?r"'iffrts?iay
trusts of the country. Those
50,000 men know that there
are 70,000,000 of other peo
ple in America, and their
wisdom teaches them where
boundary lines are, over
which they cannot go with
out peril to themselves and
disaster to their business.
"NT . i
o comDinarion now says
"Damn the public", but they
have their weathercocks out
on every prominent cupola
watching how the wind
blows.
Of course, political capi
tal can be made out of such
formations of wealth, and
social orders mav raise the
black flag to fight them; but
I am a thousand times more
afraid of demagogues and
I politicians than I am afraid
of trusts and combines.
Good government which
means not onlv the well-be-ing
of the citizen, but the o
verthrow of all that will
hurt the citizen depends
upon good men in office, and
we had better. pay less at
tention to what we call
trusts and combinations and
more attention to those
whom we elect to office in
the municipal, State and na
tional governments. Mr.
Stead, in his book, 41 If
Christ .Came to Chicago,"
speaks of the "Big Four of
Chicago," and says of them
that "their methods are
clean and their transactions
are honest, but that in the
road of their success lies the
blood and bones of the vic
tims over whom they have
run to success." The suc
cessful man or combination
means the downfall of other
men and other combinations.
One preacher -is preaching
to 5,000, twenty preachers
around him consider seventy
five a full house, and a hun
dred a perfect jam; one phy
sician making $10,000 a
year, and forty little doctors
in the neighborhood not
making their grub. A Wan
amaker selling $50,000,000
a year means many little
merchants applying for
clerkships in his store. It is
the survival of the fittest, it
may be. When God made
this world he made moun
tains towering into the
clouds and valleys below the
level of the 'sea; he made
lakes and oceans; he spread
out the prairies of the West
and piled up mountains a
round the little valleys along
the ranges of the Rockies
and the Alleghanies. In the
ocean's waters we find
whales and some very small
fishes, and when the
whales come along the little
fish have to hide out. I have
traveled over this county
from ocean to ocean, and
from Montreal to Galveston,
annually for twenty years.
I have watched the progress
of events and. the processions
as they 'marched. I have
yet to know of a single in
stance where combines and
trusts hurt the masses or
permanently raised the price
of anv product. ' I am a
thousand times more willing
to deal with the trusts and
combines and purchase their
products than I am to put
my money into their institu
tions and imperil my hold
ings, conscious of their want
of stability and fearing their
final downfall. .
Of course these reat com
binations affect legislation,
if they do not control it, in
manv instances, but while
they may procure legislation
in their own interest, yet
they have one eye on public
sentiment all the time, con
scious that they can go just
so far and no farther. Here
and there they have shut
down a manufactory or
closed up an institution and
affected some individuals,
but we are not looking" from
that standpoint. When we
look at the 70,000,000 of our
population, we say they are
only procuring cheaper and
buying for less money these
products than they could
have done under other cir
cumstances.
With the final disintegra
tion of trusts and combines-
which will inevitably come
when financial disaster and
shrinkage of values shall
come of course, the surplus
of their product will be
thrown upon the market, and
only the stockholders in these
trusts and combines will suf
fer. As sure as that the sun
shines, whenever an institu
tion becomes unwieldy be
cause of its size and bulk, it
will finally fall of its own
weight.
I am an expansionists, and
I believe that one of the
causes of the stringency and
shrinkage of values in this
country is because we have
not gone out over the seas
with our products as we
should have done. While
there is a demand for our
products of the farm and
manufactory of this country
there will always be plenty of
money; but when wheat and
corn and cotton and all kinds
of manufactures are a drug
on the market, and no de
mand for them, then we have
strengency and hard times.
But when the highwa37s over
the seas shall be laden with
our products into foreign
countries, and the gold is
brought back in the ships,
then we shall flourish peren
ially. These great combi
nations are the only powers
in this country that can do
this thing for us. A negro
and an old mule can make
corn and cotton; a fellow
wi'tTi a two hundred dollar
saw mill can make lumber;
but only aggregations of
wealth can build ships and
open markets in foreign
lands.
Dropping the Mask.
Will lam Jennings Bryan
virtually admits that his
first act as President would
be to pull down our flag and
surrender the Philippines to
Tagal robbers and murder
ers. Chairman Jones of the
democratic national commit
tee admits that such is Mr.
Bryan's intention. In an in
terview at New York Sena
tor Jones was asked: "What
will Mr. Brvan do? Will he
withdraw our troops from
the Philippines immediately,
if he is elected?'? "Why
not?" answered Senator
Jones. "They were ordered
to the Philippines. Why
can't they be ordered back?
They were taken in boats.
Why can't they be brought
back in boats?"
Senator Jones' statement
was telegraphed to Lincoln,
Neb., and shown to Mr. Bry
an, who was asked if his
first act as President would
be to order the withdrawal
of the American troops from
the Philippines. Mr. Bryan
refused to deny that such is
his intention.
As commander-in-chief of
the army and navy Mr. Bry
an could, and Mr. Jones ad
mits he would, abandon the
Philippines. In withdraw
ing our troops Mr. Bryan
would violate his oath of
office by usurping power to
alienate national territory
without consent of Congress
and by depriving himself of
means of executing the laws
in such territory. JTor these
offences he could and probab
ly would be impeached. But
pending impeachment the
army and navy would have
to obey his orders and the
mischief would be done. Our
flag would be hauled down
and the Philippines turned
over to the Aguinaldo oligar
chy. Some weeks ago, Buen
camino, Aguinaldo 's former
Secretary of State, declared
that the insurgents had writ
ten pledges from Mr. Bryan
that if he should be elected
President the Filipinos would
be given independence. This
charge Mr. Bryan answered
only with the quibbling eva
sion that he had "never writ
ten a letter to any Filipino."
George Fred Williams, in a
public speech in Indiana last
week, admitted that only
hope of Bryan's election kept
up resistance to American
authority in the Philippines.
Jones' statement, Williams'"
admission, and Bean's tacit
confession confirm Buencam
ino's charge.
The American people
should thank Senator Jones
for his frank disclosure, of
Bryan's policy toward the
Philippines. Jones has com
pelled Bryan to drop his
mask and exhibit his inten
tions in their naked infamv.
The Jones -statement is but
another wav of fWlnn'tirr
that, if elected President,
Bryan intends to violate his
oath of office and usurp the
power of Congress to alien
ate national territory; propo
ses to abandon to Aguinaldo-
ite cutthroats the great ma
jority of peaceful Filipinos
who preferred and welcomed
our rule; proposes to say to
the mother of every Ameri
can soldier killed in the Phil
ippines that her son died as
the fool dieth; proposes to
trail the stars and stripes in
the mud at the feet of Tagal
assassins. Inter Ocean.
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