Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-09-13

that time and ticket comes around with
a red star Or blue star ON it, don't you
think the ssstar-back'' would commend
itself to the farmer with = magnetism
which would take manhood to resist?
Then opposition warehouses and eleva-
tors become tenantless; other buyers
find their Occupation gone, and every
pound of wheat pays its toll before it
gets to mill. This may, seem an un-
necessary addition of machinery, as the
road could put the additional tariff on
the wheat direct, and so it would be in
California, where the Directors are the
road. 1t becomes important, however,
say in Illinois, when the Directors of
the road own the warehouses and eleva-
tors. the blue stars and rcd stars, and
larger body of stockholders own the
road, aud is one of the ingenious appli-
ces by which the tinside ring" gradual
ly possess themselves of the whole stock.
For it often happens that those who
most loudly invoke the principle of the
sancity of property act as though they
believed that sanctity was a quality
which belonged to their properly but
not to other people-on the same princi-
pie suppose that to the sanity all
things are sanctified, and that sinners
who do not belong to the ring are alto
gether ungodly-whose inheritance
should be taken away and given to the
saints.
AN ILLUSTRATION THAT Is FICTITIOUS.
Then suppose an instance, which, of
course, is purely fictitious. Suppose a
salt plain should be discovered in Neya-
da, from which salt could be laid down
, aG the Comstock Mills cheaper than from
the coast. But, salt is very cheap at the
seaside; especial rate would place it
in Virginia City at price that would
defy cCmpetion." The owner of the
salt plain could be given his choice be-
tween published rates'' and pack
mules. Do you think after he had sue
cumbed the price of salt would be any
lower, because another s'midule-man"
had been squeezed out? What corld be
done with one salt manufactory or de-
posit could be done with others, and we
have added salt to the coal and wheat
which have passed under the control of
| a monopoly of transportation that is not
amenable to law
A man owns mine hear the road !; If
| he can transport his ore or base metal to
the smelling works at reasonable rates,
his mine is valuable. He does not sue
ceeds in getting rates which he can
afford to pay. He holds
on with the sickness of deferred
hope at his heart. His creditors become
clamorous-perhaps his children are
| clamorous for bread. If at the next
election the railroad has a ticket, do you
| think the owner of the mine could re-
fuse 20 vote it? And, if he did, who
would own the mine after the Sheriff IS
sale? Oh, but our railroads don't put
| up tickets, and don't want mines for
themselves or their friends. Perhaps
not. Their successors may. 1t is not
mercy-it is justice we want. But why
| multiply instances? Go through the
whole catalogue of the necessaries, the
| luxuries, the superfluities of life, there
is not an article which would be exempt
from this power to control. The long
list would include everything which is
worth controlling. In one of the Parli-
aments of Elizabeth a member had fin
ished reading list of the articles upon
which monOpolies had been granted,
when another started up and asked, ss1s
not bread therep" In the new list to
be prepared for us bread would be there
l--everything would be there necessary
| to the comfort or sustenance of life, ex-
cept the air of heaven.
| But the magnitude of this result still
suggests its impraeticability! Why
four-ifths of the preparatory work has
been silently done, apparently without
design! Take the 10000 miles of rail-
in the United States-the great mass OF
this property is owned, Or controlled as
absolutely as though it were owned, by
certainly less than ten companies, and
the. directory of these companies may
not include hundred men. If the pres
ent frte of absorption continue, how
long before iI will reach one head? Ii
could be accomplished now in one day.
/ Suppose the transportation companies
the white stars, red stars and blue stars,
who have contracts to run their ears
over various roads-should conclude to
combine, and, making their capital stock
one or two or three thousand million
dollars--letermine to "place it where
it would do the most good" and further
determine that it could not possibly dc
SO much tgood anywhere else as in the
hands of the men who are railroad di.
rectors. Then these men, as railroad di.
rectors, lease to themselves as transpor-
; tatiOn directors the various roads undel
their control-and the thing is done. Bu
such contract, you urge, would be baG
in morals and void in law. don't know
wherein it differs in principle from con
tract made by the contractors of rail
road company with themselves to con
struct road. But, you suggest til,
stockholders would not stand it. 1 d,
net know why they would not, if thei
dividends are secured by the leasers. Blu
the people, you say would not stand it
There would be an uprising, revolu
ton! Now you are the Communist
the agitator. We do not propose to in
woke the bleody power of revolution, bu
the majesty of a pronounced publi
opinion under the benignant forms o
law. Grant that this danger of unifica
tion is, as perhaps many Of you thin
it, the chimera of an over-heated brail
1.-The tendency toward concentration
has reached its limit. What, after all
is the practical difference? What Van
!, derbilt might do if sole owner, is doin
in various sections by various corpora
tions acting for common purpose wit
: a common interest and common instinc,
? 1t is only the differenre between the kin.
! and the satraps. l2s'2 7'.i z''>5''5-'
"a THE DANGER DEFINED.
Q Let me state again the danger as ex
' actly as I can. There is a natural ten
: dency in every civilized society toward
D the concentration of capital. That ten
/ dency has been greatly intensified i
s this country by the commissions of ou
a civil war. The property in the hand
means, is still a hundred fold create
than the great fortunes, but it is EN-
ployed for ten thousand different pul
! poses. Concentrated capitol recognize
by the instinct oflnoney- sense that th
/ control of the railroads of the countr
= will give it the control of all the proper
S ty of the country; that to accomplis
. this, political power, political suprems
Y cy, is necessary, and this it is enable
e to seek with such an immense pressur
g upon the rights and material Interest
g of every man and every community
d that there is eminent danger that W
: will become enslaved in spirit, lose ths
e sense OF manly independence which
e the essence of freedom, while we are Ell
IS joying the forms of liberty, and barte
: the bright hopes of the republic for
: fictitious material growth. The powe
Is that threatens this danger has not W
n reached unity, but the work is as cel
e. tainly being done by different comps
l. nies acting in the same interest &
n though it had; while the tendency t.
e wards concentration under one head I
n one iron hand is so manifest that not t
,s see it is to be wilfully blind.
v That this statement is not exagerate
e or emotional, I appeal to the experiene
, of every business man in this commun
g ty who takes part or feels an interest
| r,lhIia off.sirc Got