The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-08-16

when they were selling their collieries to US.
They took OF money as If it was their mothers
milk, and you never saw men more anxious for
it. Mr.. Borda sold his colliery to us at large
price. and Dr. Rommel sold his colliery at
large price; and have no doubt those gentle
men looked with eager eyes to the time when
great corporation, as We were, would become
the miners of coal, and when, instead OF SELL
ing fifty thousand, sixty thousand, r one hun
bred thousand tons of coal by factors, We would
turn our business over to them, and let them
get forty cents ton out of an annual product
Of millions of tons. But we were not to be
caught in that way. Having once concluded
to go into the business, we made up our minds
that we would sell our own coal: You see,
therefore, the reason for the opposition OF these
| gentlemen. We shipped last year, OF the bus
mess formerly done by factors, one million
three hundred thousand tons Of coal At for.
| ty cents ton, there was five hundred and
twenty tho isand dollars annual profit taken
out Of the pockets of eight or ten men. No
wonder they look angry! No wonder they de-
clare war! And Mr. Borda appears here in the
position of Achilles and Therstes in the event
full Illiad which is to end with the destruction
of the company. Think, gentlemen, of five
hundred and twenty thousand dollars year
for doing nothing, taken ont of the pockets OF
eight or ten men! No wonder that they think
very badly of us, because we deprived them OF
the profits IN which they were accustomed to
participate
Another word about the subject of middle
men, Some years ago l was in the State of
New York, and, think, one of the most in
teresting business operations ever saw was
the manufacture of cheese by the farmers in
that State. There is no more perfect system in
the wOrld than that combination OF farmers for
heese manufacture which exists in the State OF
New York; and when we can bring the produc-
ton of coal within rules as strict as theirs, and
manage our business upon principles as broad
how III cInlI how
attained the perfection Of a commercial enter
prise. Every farmer whose COW produces the
milk that enters into the cheese gets Just sIch
proportion of the price which that cheese brings
in Liverpool as is due to the proportion Of
milk that entered into its consumption, and
, there are no middlemen in it. Fifty or sixty
or one hundred farmers unite and send to a
cheese factory the milk from their cows. They
fatten their hogs off the Ofal, and the man who
makes the cheese gets certain sum per pound
for making it, and SO hundreds of other cheese
factories throughout the State of New York do
the same, and they have an agent paid by the
association in Liverpool, and one paid by it
, in other parts of Europe. and the cheese is
sold on account of the owner OF the COW in the
markets of the world, and there are no mid
5 demen connected with it. Why should the
>. producer be feeced for the purpose OF paying
profit, which if due to the busin' IS, ought to
G be due to him whose capital is rsked in its
prosecution? Why, gentlemen, look at the
: grain trade! What would become of the prop
: erty of the United States of America if the
. great grain trade Of this country, which goes
j into our international exchanges and adds tC
Il the value of our commerce, were leveied upon
. as it went down to the waters edge by q band
q OF factors and despoiled at the rate of twenty
e five per cent. upon The original value TO the
farmerl Is it not Just as important for the Com
y monwealth of Pennsylvania that any produc
o Of its soil should re directly sent to market
= and that the business should be prosperous
; as it is that the grain-trade should be.
/ This sounds very plausible; but where
e does its logic lead?
e Ii it is right to buy up all the mine:
of coal in State and drive all the retail
coal merchants out of business, VIII,
! would it not be equally right to buy W
!, !, all the farms, raise all the wheat, shil
/ it and sell to And if railroad compan
les can borrow money in Europe will
= which to purchase all the coal lands, VIII,
u may they not in Il few Years more Dor
= row money enough to buy up all tn
u wheat lands? They compelled the own
: ers of coal mines TO sell out TO them b.
=. =, discriminating against them in transpor
:" tation. Why can they not do the sam
! thing with the wheat raiser>? 1t is tru
= that Tor time they may cheaper coal t
the consumer 10y concentrating in thei
own hands the profits which forrnerl
p" supported hundreds offamiies and thou:
ands of human beings. But when the
. have established monopoly OF tn
=. mines. the transportation and the reta
~ trade. is it not inl the nature OF thing
u hat they will put up the price? An
y. what remedy have the people? The
= a.. ~ an
Look at it now. These corportions, viii
-, unlimited credit abroad and comple1
control Of the business at home, are alb
~. to bride the newspapers, corrupt tt
n Legislature and even control the court
M They can crush out their enemies AT
i, build up their friends. The highe
"o powers of the human mind become the
X servitors; genius, talent. eloquenc
20 cunning, are their tools. The bewil
~. cred people will eventually be driven
,a,, resist them by force, even as the starv'
NV artisans and peasants OF France rose ,
10y against the devilish arts of that aristo
Pc racy which had combined all Eurol
10; u.s. against their liberties The ignora
'an Frenchman found that the guiilotine W
Ar the only match for the superb cunniI
-, of his enemies.
Every man must deplore such resul
49, vet it seems to be advancing with t
~. certainty of doom. The more the pc
N pie are plundered the more contemput
they will become; the more SUGGEST
IN the corporations are, the more arroga
az they will grow; they will thus advan
div step by step. from point to point. un
he Legislatures become q mockery a
low newspapers a farce. A struggle "
any thep come which will either wipe {
,ieb republican institutions in one half
ven nation. or will forever prevent the ext
ives ence of q corporation in our midst. I
vere States will take possession of the 70;
w ,hs beds and allow private parties to I
'uls, trans thereon As 'uey no" rue siea
nor boats on the rivers, paying Ouly 81