Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-05-15
Concentration of Capital.


few corporations, companies or firms.
The Pacific railroads, the Credit No
Jiiier, the Syndicates, the Standard oil
company, the Philadelphia and Read
ing coal and iron company, the En-
pire and Union transportation compa-
nies, are all specimens of this policy.
In the excise laws the same results
are to be seen. In their practical
operation nearly all the small distill-
cries and breweries have been driven
out of existence, and the manufacture
of spirituous and malt liquors mostly
confined to large establishments en-
Iploying hundreds of thousands, if not
millions, of dollars of capital. While
the manufacture of all kinds of liquor
is greater now than before the war,
yet the number of small establish
ments engaged in the business is not
over one-fith rs great. Men Of small
or moderate capital are being rapidly
driven out of the business.
Twenty years ago most Of the an
thracite coal was mined and shipped
by individual operators, who owned or
leased the lands worked; now four
fifths of that commodity is mined and
shipped by half a dozen gigantic cor
porations, the capital of some Of which
is computed by tens of millions. In
diyidual operators in this field have
nearly all been driven to the wall. A
few years ago all the mineral oil was
produced, shipped, refined and sold by
individuals; now hundreds of these
individual producers are being ruined
every year by the domination of the
Standard oil company-a corporation
created by the Republican legislature
of Ohio. This mammoth corporation,
it is said, receives annually from the
great railroad companies drd,cbdcks
amounting TO nine millions Of dollars.
Individual shippers of freight upon
our railroads are being constantly
ruined by the great transportation
monopolies. Before the war there
were nearly rs many individual lend
ers of money throughout the country
rs there were individual borrowers.
Now most Of the money TO be loaned
Is in the possession of banks, insur-
ance and trust companies.
What is the effect of all this upon
the labor Of the country? Manifest
ly to reduce the number of employ.
ers and thereby destroy competition
among them for the labor they need.
The smaller the number Of employers
the more absolutely can they dictate
the wages and conditions of the labor.
ers. AZ long as anthracite coal was
mostly mined by individual operators
no great strikes, involving thousands
of laboring men and their families for
months in want and starvation, were
known; great riots placing whole
counties in n state of terrorism for
weeks were unheard of As a matter
of fact, which we believe cannot be
controverted, the great railroad riots
of 1877 we're the natural outgrowth
of this policy of concentrating capital
and destroying competition.
Every piece of Legislation, the effect
of which would be to drive from any
business men of small or moderate
means is a direct attack upon the in
terests of the laboring men employed
in that business. Of this nature is
the bill No. ~, which recently passed
our State Senate and is now pending
in the House. This proposed act
seeks to compel all corporations or
persons engaged in mining coal, or
manufacturing iron or steel, to pay
their men at stated times in money.
Under its provisions all men of mod.
crate means would be obliged to quit
the business, leaving the great corpor-
ations and large capitalists the sole
miners and manufacturers. Last week
we published the speech Of our able
Senator, Hon. G. T. Alexander, in op-
position to this measure, the pernicious
tendencies of which he exnozed in n