Omaha daily bee., 1881-06-13
Is There ANY Danger?

IL lolio - 10 ilh ~ iSV u "
ing, patriotic men have thought and
said:
The following extract from a recent
letter written by Hon. David Davis,
once a judge of the supreme court,
now a senator of the United States,
indicates the serious nature of the
problem before us:
"Great corporations and consolidat-
ed monopolies are fast selling the
avenues Of power that lead to the con-
troll of the government. tits an open
secret that they rule states through
procured legislatures and corrupted
courts; that they are strong in con-
gress, and that they + INSCRIPTIONS
in the use of means to conquer preju-
dice and acquire influence. This on
dition of things is truly alarming, for
unless it be changed quickly and thor
oughly, free institutions r doomed
to be subverted by an ~oligarchy rest
ing upon a basis of money and of cor
porate power"
The present secretary of the treas
ury, Mr.. Window, in a recent letter
to the president of the Anti-Monopo-
ly League, says:
"The channels of thought and the
channels of commerce thus owned and
controlled by one man, or by a few
men what is to retain corporate power
or to fix a limit to its exactions upon
the people2 What is then to hinder
these men from depressing or Initiating
the value of all kinds of property to
suit their caprice or avarice, and
thereby gathering into their own cot
fers the wealth of the nation! Where
is the limit to such n power as thist
What shall be SAID of the spirit of a
free people who will submit without a
protest to be thus bound hand and
footf
Hon. jeremiah S. Black, ex-judge
of the supreme court and e~x-attorncy
general of the United States, recently
stated:
"All public men must take their
side on this question. There can be
no neutrals. He that is not for us is
against us. We must have legal pro-
lection against these abuses, This
agitation once begun, and the magni-
tude of the grievance being under
stood, it will force our rulers to give
lis "a remedy against it. The monopo-
lies will resist with all their arts and
Influence, but fifty millions of people,
i'll process of time, will learn the i'm
portant fact that they are fifty mil
lions strong"
Governor Gray, of Indiana, in a
message to the Legislature of that state
in January last, said:
SIN my Judgment the republic can,
not live long in the atmosphere which
now surrounds the ballot-box. Mon
eyed corporations, to secure favorable
legislation for themselves, are taking
an active part i'll elections by furnish
ing large sums of money to corrupt the
voter and purchase special privilege:
from the government. If money ear
control the decision at the ballot-boS
it will not be long until it can control
its existence.
This is in entire accordance with the
views of Daniel Webster, who said:
'The freest government cannot long
endure, where the tendency Of the
law is TO create a rapid accumulation
of property in the hands of few, and
to render the masses of the people
poor and dependent"
The press, with the exception OF
that portion which is owned or subsi.
died, are with the people in this
fight. The New York Times (Rep.)
under date of May 10, in an article re
garding the encroachments of corpor
ate power, says:
ut is not only absorbing to itseli
the fruits of labor and the gains o.
trade and piling up wealth in the
hands of the few, but it is controlling
legislation and endeavoring to sway