The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1881-06-22
MISCELLANY.
rs THERE ANY DANGERr

patriotic men have thought and said
The following extract from recent letter
written by Hon. David Davis, once Judge
of the Supreme Court, now Senator of the
United States, indicates the serious nature of
the problem before us;
"Great corporations and consolidated
monopoles are fast Selling the avenues of
power that lead to the control of the Govern
ment. 1t is an open secret that they rule
States through procured Legislatures and
corrupted Courts; that they are strong in
Congress- and that they are INSCRIPTIONS in
the use of means to conquer prejudice and ac-
quire influence. This condition of things is
truly alarming, for unless it be changed
quickly and thoroughly, free institutions are
doomed to be subverted by an oligarchy rest
ing upon basis of money and of corporate
power"
The present Secretary of the Treasury, Mr..
Window, in a recent letter to the President
of the Autobiography 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 restrain
corporate power, or to fix limit to its exact
ions upon the people? What is then to him
der these mon from depressing or initiating the
value of all kinds of property to suit their
caprice or ayarice, aud thereby gathering into
their own Golfers the wealth of the nation |?
Where is the limit to such a power as this !?
What shall be said of the spirit of free people
who will submit without protest to be thus
bound hand and foot ?"
Hon. Jeremiah s. Black, ex-Judge Of the
Supreme Court and ex.Attorney General of
the United States, recently stated:
GAN 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 protection against these abuses.
This agitation once begun, and the magnitude
of the grievance being understood, it will
it. The monopolies will resist with all their
arts and influence, but fifty millions of people,
in process of time, will learn the important
fact that they are fifty millions strong"
Governor Gray, of Indiana, in message to
the Legislature of that State in January last,
said
"In my Judgment the republic cannot live
long in the atmosphere which now surrounds
the ballot. box. Moneyed corporations, to
secure favorable legislation for themselves,
are taking an active part in elections by fur
Dishing large sums of money to corrupt the
voter and purchase special privileges from
the Government. If money can control the
decision at the ballotbo it will not be long
until 1t can control its existence"
This is in entire accordance with the views
of Daniel Webster, who said
'sThe freest government cannot long en-
dure, where the tendency of the law is to
create rapid accumulation of property in the
hands of few, and to render the masses of the
people poor and dependent" 81
The Press, with the exception of that por-
tion which is owned or subsidized, are with
the people in this fight The New York
Times (Rep.), under date of May 10, in an ar
ticle regarding the encroachments of corporate
power, says.
1t is not only absorbing to itself the fruits
of labor and the gains Of trade and piling up
wealth in the hands of the few, but it is con-
trolling legislation and ehdeavoring to sway
the decisions of courts in its own. interest,"
We are now at stage in the contest where
the people may vindicate their authority and
place these corporations under the regulation
of law
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle DEM, in re-
cent editorial said
"There is a pretty general feeling that the
continent of America was not discovered by
Columbus, and civil liberty established by the
Fathers of the Republic, to tho end that fifty
millions of people might be made tributary to
a band of railroad magnates, or that farmers,
artisans and merchants might, by hard work
and keen competition raise up a dozen Van
derbits with each several hundred millions
of dollars. Those who entertain this feeling
have become persuaded that the time has ar
rived for the Industrious masses of this
country to protect themselves, if they ever
intend to do SO. 1t win certainly not be
easier after the adversary has become strong
err. In this contest every delay is TO the dis