The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-03-17
An Extraordinary Letter.
The New Secretary Of the Treasury. Mr..
Window, on the Power Of M0nOpOlies,
the EnslaEenent OF the Press. and the
Means OF SURPRISING Public Wrongs.

al Autobiography League.
My DEAR SIR Il deeply regret that off
ciai duties of an imperative character pre-
vent the acceptance of your kind Invitation
to address the meeting at Cooper Institute
on the 2lst inst Until to-day hoped to b
able to arrange my business so as to attend
the meeting, but find it will be impossible
The purpose of your League, as | under
stand 1t, is not to wage war upon corpora
tions or individuals, but cOnceding to al
their just rights, to demand full protection
for the rights of the citizen against the abus
Is aud aggressons of corporate power, and
TO insist upon the enforcement of those prin
clples of law and natural right defined by
| the Supreme Court of the United States. In
this effort you have my most hearty sympa.
| thy and cooperation. Your cause is just
but in such a contest you grapple with
! giants. Do not underrate the power or the
| skill of your antagonists. Wise and con-
seryative counsels will alone secure success.
lou must be as prompt to concede rights as
| you are determined in demanding them. No
agrarlan or communstic spirit must find
| place in your proceedings The character
| OF the men who compose your organization
gives assurance against danger on this point.
! Constitutions, natural rights, and the spirit
of our institutions are on your side. In
| trenched behind these, and fighting for the
| right, you cannot fail
Corporate power has done much to devel-
OPP our country. For its good deeds freely
| accord it full credit. As an instrument to
| execute the will and serve the interests of
the public, it is of incalculable value but
as the imperious ruler of the people it is a
most cruel and relentless tyrant. Kept with
IN the limits of proper restraint it is an in>
valuable servant of the public. Unrestrain-
ed by the forces of law and public opinion
| 1t Will prove a most dangerous master The
individual citizen is impotent to contend
with this gigantic and rapidly growing pow
er. Government authority, State and ma
tlonal, alone Is competent to restrain its ag-
gressons and correct its abuses. | have long
foreseen that the time would come when the
people would be compelled to invoke the ex-
ercise of that authority for their protection.
L repeat to-day, in sub stance, words uttered
seven years ago, that ''there are in this
country four men who, in the matter Of tax
alton, possess and frequently exercise powers
which neither Congress nor any ofour State
Legislature would dare to exert-powers
which, if exercised in Great Britain would
shake the throne to its very foundation.
These men may at any time, and for any
reason satisfactory to themselves, by stroke
of the pen reduce the value of property in
the United States by hunreds of millions.
They may at their own will and pleasure
disarrange and embarrass business, depress
one city or locality and build up another
enrich one individual and ruin his competi-
tors. and, when complaint is made, coolly
reply, "What are you going to do about it ?'
The men who WELD this stupendous COR
porate power have grown wiser with the
passage of events. Hitherto they have
been apparently content to absorb and
control the great industrial and material
interests of the country, by a monopoly of
the channels and implements of transporta-
ton, but recently new and alarming condi-
tions are presented. They known full well
that if the people can freely communicate
with each other, they will see the dangerous
tendencies of this power, and organize to
restrain it. Hence, in order to lay deep
and sure foundations for the maintenance
of their power, and to defeat the efforts of
the people to curb it, they have now seized
upon the channels of thought. Look at it
a moment. One man, who controls more
miles of railroad than any other in the
world, and who is almost daily adding new
lines to his colossal combination now also |
controls the Geographic system of the
United States and Canada, and is reaching
under the sea to grasp that of Europe. Not
content with all this, and determined that
no instrument of commercial and political |
power shall elude his grasp, he is Gas learn) |
also the owner of three out of the seven
newspapers which constitute the Associated
Press, through the agency of which the
news is distributed over the entire country.
He may at any time secure the fourth DE-
per, which will give him absolute control
over the news which the people shall re-
ceive. When that takes place what will be
our condition? What chance will the
people then have to resist the encroach-
ments of corporate power? How shall they
even communicate with each other on the
subject? What opportunity will there be
for a fair discussion of these questions
The daily news, supplied to the myriad of
newspapers, must first pass und the super
vision of one or two men, who represent the
Associated Press, and who are appointed by
its owner. They will have full authority.
and doubtless will be required to suppress,
add to, or color the information thus sent
out as may best serve the interest, the am
btion, or the malice of the man to whom
they owe their places. Hence the twenty
millions of people who read their morning
papers at their breakfast tables will daily
receive just such impressions as the one man
shall choose to give them. Public men and
affairs, and business interests and move
men:s, will be seen in the coloring which
shall best serve his interests. The legisla-
tor who shall then be bold enough to raise
his voice in behalf of the people, or to
strike blow in their defence, will be miss
represented OF denied 3 hearing before his
shall venture to question the divine right
of corporate rule will be crushed, and no
teegraphic wire or Associated Press will
voice his woe OF demand redress from his
prosecutors. The people will find them
selves unable to communicate with each |
other except by the gracious will and pleas
sure of the autocrat of the wires Should
special correspondents undertake to supply
information not deemed expedient to be
sent by the Associated Press, they will find
that the owner of the wires can supply
ready remedy for such presumption.
The channels of thought and the chan.
nels of commerce thus owned and contFoll- |
ed by one man, or by few men, what is to |
restrain corporate power, or to fix limit to |
its exactions upon the people? What is |
then to hinder these men from depressing |
or initiating the value of all kinds of proper |
ty to suit their caprice or aTarioe and !
thereby gathering into their own Golfers the |
wealth of the nation? Where is the limit |
to such power as this? What shall be |
said of the spirit ola few people who will |
submit without protest to be thus bound |
hand and foot? have limited at some of the |
dangers which menace our future. If it |
be to correct these evils, and TO avert these
dangers your League has been organized. it |
will receive the benedictiors of the people. |
The practical question is, "What are you
going 10 do about i? % To my mind the |
answer is easy. This organized gigantic |
corporate power can only be kept under |
proper restraint by the organized power of
the people. expressed through their State
and national Governments That such |
governmental power exists and may prop
erls be exercised I have not a particle of
doubt. 1t is plainly written in our Consti-
tutions, and has been unequivocally de-
clared by the Supreme Court of the United
States,
The limits of this letter viii not permit
discussion of the constitutional question
nor a detailed statement Of the practical
remedy for existing evil. ] may, however,
venture to suggest that, in my Judgment,
the first and most important duty Of Con-
gress is to enancipate the people from the