Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1881-03-09
THE IMPENDING SHADOW.

Great bodies move slowly, and the
public is slower than monopolizing cor.
lporations. But a time may be con,
ceived Of nay, even be predicted, when
the public will become swiiler than
corporations, and when those corpora
tons may not only be caught up with
but even ground to powder by the
public wrath.
THIS country just now has entered
upon time Of great material prosperi
| ty. The land laughs with fatness and
promise. A burst OF sunshine has bath,
ed the whole nation with radiance and
Joy, This may have seemed sudden
although concurrence Of happy
events has long been leading up to it,
Hence to many persons the general
enulgence appears like glad surprise
But just now a shadow has crcpt over
the earth, chill has filed the air
The blithe and confident spirit that SO
lately prevailed is damp and hesitat.
ing What does this meal and what
does it portcndY
1t means that the people, through
the stress of ominous and accumulat.
ing events, are getting too see that
they are in danger OF becoming the
victims Of new and crushing forms Of
oppression. 1t means that the words
consolidation and combination" are
beginning to be- understood 1t means
that the people have como to perceive
that if to-day they are to be heavily
taxed through artificial valuations on
thing they cannot possibly do with.
out, the process may be repeated to.
morrow on something else, the next
day on some other necessity; SO that
at last their very Likelihood will be
sucked ont by the greedy vampires
who grow more Unsuitable with impu
nifty, and who, already swollen nearly
to bursting, still plot and strain iol
further accumulation.
1t means yet more. 1t means thai
the people see with growing alarm and
anger that the blood-suckeis are forti
flying themselves so strongly in legis
lative bodies that relief or protection
from those quarters, ii sought tor, may
be sought for in vain that men who
have been thought to be representa-.
tivcs of the people have become in,
stead representatives Of the corpora.
tions, thus snugly and surely entrench,
ed, are fast learning to laugh at public
opinion. For who shall say them nay
with the highest power in the land
holding up their hands from behind
There is reason, then, for the i'm
pending shadow. There is reason for
solicitude when the people who must
use the telegraph, are told they must
pay dividends on eighty millions OF
dollars, when quarter Of that sum
would replace all that the stock of the
inflated corporation represents. There
is no reason for solicitude when the
same principle, applied now here, now
there, to lines of transportation, threat.
ems to end in imposing throughout the
country four times the charge for car.
rying goods or persons that the serv.
ice is worth. There is reason for 30.
licitude when, seeing what may be
done, free of lot or hindrance, with
telegraphs and railroads, monopolsts
are vislbly preparing to repeat the per.
formance in other fields so that at last
It may oven be that the whole labor Of
the nation will stagger under unproce.
dented aud at last unbearable burdens
to swell the already crammed purses
of scheming monopolsts.
All this, VIC may be sure, is not o
summer cloud that can overcome the
community without causing either
special fear or wonder 1t betokens a
real, menacing, present danger. 1t
implies that n time has come when the
forces of public opinion must be set at
work in earnest TO breast and bear
back a grevious calamity. Supinoness
will not answer to close our eyes and
stop our ears will not answer A mo.
mcnt has arrived when we must change
all that a moment when legislators
and those who bribe them must cry
a halt aud moment whom ocombin.
ers" and "consolidators" and all other
plotters against the common veal in
the interest of corporate monopoly
must be told in trumpet tones, and in
something more than words If need be,
"rhus far shall yo go and no further"
--Ner York Post.
-e-.~~.------
The man who goes into business
with the devil soon finds that his part