Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-02-25
MONOPOLIES.

The rapid strides being made by
the great monopolies toward con-
trolling the business of the country
is beginning to attract active
and aggressive attention. A late
number of the New York Evening
Post Says.
Great bodies move slowly, and the
public is slower than monopolizing
corporations. But time may be con-
ceived OF, nay, even may be predicted,
when the public will become swifter
than corporations. and when those
corporations 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 pros-
perity. The land laughs with fatness
and promise. A burst Of sunshine has
| bathed the whole nation with radiance
aud joy. This may have seemed sud
| den. although q concurrence OF happy
| event has long been leading TO it,
| Hence to many persons the general
effulgence appears like glad surprise.
| But just now a shadow has crept over
| the earth, chilli has filled the air.
The blithe and confident spirit that
so lately prevailed is damped and
hesitating. What does this mean and
what does il pCrt8nd?
Ii means that the people, through
the stress Of ominou5 and accumulat-
Jog events, are getting to see that they
are in danger Of becom lng the victims
Of new aud crushing forms of oppres-
sion. 1t means that the words con
sulldationn AMI combination" are
beginning to be understood. It 10 eaDF
that the people have come to perceive
that If day they are to be heavily
taxed through artificial valuations OIL
thing they cannot possibly do with
ou', the process may Do repeated to
morrow on something else, the mex
day on some other necessity so tha
at last til cir very lifeehlOOd will b
sucked out by the greedy vampires
who grow more Unsuitable with I'D
punity, and who, already swolleI
nearly 10 bursting, still plot and strain
= for further accumulation.
1t mans yet more. 1t means tina
the people see with growing alarm
and anger that the b!Ood-suckers ar
y, certifying themselves SO strongly il
legislative bodies that relief or protec
/ lion from those quarters, If sought foI
may be sought FIR in vain that mel
. who have been thought t. be repre-
{ sentatives OF the people have becOm
instead representatives of he corpO
5 rations; that the corporations, thu
y sbug!y and surely entrenched, are fas
leArnipg to laugh st public opinion
q For who shall cay them nay with tn
:, higheet power in the land holding U
J theil hands from behind?
o There is reason, then, for the in
pending shadow. There is reason fC
% solicitlde when the people, who mus
r use the telegraph, are told they mus
pay dividends on eighty millions
l. dollars, when a quarter of that SUI
n would replace ali that the stock of tt
inflated corporation represents. Thel
e is reason for solicitude when the san
7 principle, applied now here, no
- there, to lines of Transportation
n threatens to end in imposing through
out the country four times the chars
~ of carrying goods or persons that Il
ia service is worth. There is reason f
s0licitu3e when, seeing what may
o. done, freq of lei or hindrsuce,' wi
n telegraDhs aud railroads, mOnOpOlls
are vlsibiy preparing to repeat the pc
10 Torrance III other fields 81 that at Ia
Ia it may even be tnat the whole labor
the nation will stagger under unpTeC
le denied and at last unbearable burde
to swell the already crammed purses
schemiDg monopolists.
All this, We may be sure, is not
summer cloud that can overcome 4
community without causing eth
~ special fear or wonder. Il belokens
- real, u menacjng, a present dang,
o. Il implies that lime has come VIII,
the forces Of public opinion must
U" set st work in earnest to breast al
f. bear back a grievous calamity. s
pineness will not answer; to close o
ne eyes aud stop our ears will not answ'
a. A moment has arrived when we mt
:, change all that; moment when lie
IL, islators and those who bribe the
I must cry a halt; and moment VIII
- "combiners" and "consolidators" a
ay all other plotters against the comm
:. veal in the interest Of corporate n
lo@ nopoly must be told in trumpet ton
or and in something more than words,
:. need be, "Thus far shall ye 60 and
- further"
of .~--