The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-02-24
The Impeing Shadow
N,.,,, N-,,tyaniuO Pot


Great bodies nj slowly, and the public
is slower than uPpoli2ng corporations.
But q time may baneeived of, nay, even
may be predicted, len the public vii! be-
come swifter thanlFporstions, and whom
those corporations hy not only be caught
up with but even fund to powder by the
public wrath. ia country just now has
entered upon tintf great material pros
perity. The land gbs with latness and
promise. A burstg sunshine has bathed
the whole nation IT'D radiance and ioy
This may have seed sudden although a
concurrence Of hari events has long been
leading up to it. ence TO many persons
the general ehrnce appears like a
glad surprise. }ut just now a
shadow has cr over the earth, q
chill has Gil tho air. What
does this mean al what does it portend {?
1t means that theppie, through the streets
of ominous and cumulating events, are
getting to see thatey are in danger Of be-
coming the victs of new and crushing
forms of oppres,n. 1t means that the
words "consolidan' and combination
are beginning TO- understood. 1t means
that the peoI lefe come to perceive that
if to-day they % to be heavily taxed
through artificiahluations on thing they
cannot possibly without, the process may
be repeated to.orrow on something else,
the next day on me other necessity; SO that
at last their verlfe-blood will be sucked
out by the ,raedy vampires, who
grow more stisbe with impunity.
and who, alread'woIen nearly TO bursting,
still plot and sta Tor further accumulation.
II means yet nc. 1t means that the people
see with growinllarm and anger that the
bloodsuckers certifying themselves so
strongly in legittive bodies that relief or
protection fromlose quarters, if sought for,
may be soughtr in vain; that men who
have been thotlt to be representatives of
the people haylecome instead representa-
tives of the copraIions; that the corpora.
tons, thus snuy and surely intrenched, are
fast learning tough at public opinion. For
who shall say bean nay with the highest
power in the ud holding up their hands
from behind There is reason, then,
for the ilnTding shadow. There is
reason for solitude when the people, who
must use the egraph, are told they must
pay diyidendon eight millions of dollars,
when q quart of that sun would replace all
that the sto of the inflated corporation
represents, here is reason for solicituda
when the SAT principle, applied now here,
now there, tines Of transportation, threat
ems to endn imposing throughout the
country fo1 mes the charge for carrying
goods OF D bns that tue service is worth.
There is rel a for solicitude when, seeing
what may ljlOne, free Of let or hindrance,
with tele 9|hs and railroads, monopolists
are visiblyFparing to repeat the perform
ance in DIR fields so that at last it may
even be tfIshe whole labor of the nation
will stagga. luder unprecedented and at the
unbearab burdens to swell the already
crammedtses Of scheming monopOlits.
All this, b may be sure, is not a summer
cloud til can overcome the community
without lnsiug either special fear or won.
der. Itktokens a real, a menacing u
present Cger. 1t implies tina. time has
come VIII the forces Of public opinion must
be set atork in earnest 10 breast and bear
back n ttvious calamity. Supineness will
not angJ to close our eyes and stop our
ears W St answer. A moment has arrived
whenl nust change all that; moment
whenH ators and those who bribe them
must = halt; and q moment when "com-
biner. u "consolidators" and all otherplot-
tors a NJ the common veal in tho interest
Of e hto monopoly must be told in
truml rbne, and IN something more than
wordi,Ated be, "Thus far shall ye 90 ard
M FL ~