The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1882-05-11
WILL JAY GOULD own THE COUN.
TRYf
IFroul The Chicago Expresa. j

tFrom The Chicago Expresa1
Il il time TO inquire II there is any
limit TO the power Of = fnancier Of the
ability Of Jay Gould. He began BY
plundering the Erie, and he has sub
jugated the Union Pacific, the Wabash
system, the Anthracite Coal roads, the
Elevated roads. the Western Union
telegraph, the Texas Pacific. the city Of
st. Louis, and the whole railroad system
Of the Southwest. He has absorbed the
telcgraphs Of Canada, and he has entered
upon the commercial conquest OF
Mexico. He is monarch OF II, ia miles
of railroad, and he is the controlling
spirit Of corporations with q capital Of
&6i5. 800. OOO--a sum equal to the value
Of all the property in the State OF Illi-
nois. He is the king Of the stock
market. The pool Of which he was the
brains ran gold up from 131 to 162 on
Black Friday. He is able to name the
price, within reason, Of any stock on the
list. No corporation can withstand an
attack from him. His control Of the
telegraph gives him undue power over
the press. He owns the leading Demo.
cratic and the leading Republican news
paper in the country. He has already
taken a hand in the ocean carrying
trade, both on the Atlantic aud Pacific,
the Pacific Mail and the Panama lines
having succumbed to him. In very
little time he is likely to control all the
routes Of transportation and commune
cation on and out Of this continent. His
power grows steadily, and the limits OF
his operations widen. In his rapacious
progress he finds little difficulty inter-
posed by the law-making bodies and the
courts Of the country. He has arrived
Mt such pitch Of power that he scarcely
needs any official aid. Our political and
industrial systems invite conquest by o
commercial Car. He il a young man
yet, only IS. He is Napoleon in
capacity, in daring and in ambition.
He works to crafty his lust of power
in modern ways, not with armed hosts.
II his schemes do not miscarry, he
will own the country. He will have the
markets ut his mercy. AMI will be able
to cause such wild fluctuations in the
prices Of standard artic, ) as will rob
the people aud bring immense profits to
himself; he will he able to make and
unnake towns and cities, and to heat
down every public and private interest
inimlcai 10 his own. II is possible that
This man will snbjugate the country ~
completely Within the next few years,
through the agency of his speculations,
AZ Napoleon conquered Europe, or a.
Alexander overran the East. His opera
tions have progressed 30 far with the
precision and unfailing success Of q great
General. His fall has been long pre-
dicted, but every project that he enters
upon is successful, and he is now SO
strongly intrenched a. to make failure
almost impossible. He is the most
powerful man in the country to-day,
but what he has done is little compared
with what is coming after.
But break must come somewhere.
One man can not own the United States.
Il may be that the law permits it. Il
may be that the courts allow it. Il may
he that he gains possession in virtue OF
genius that would have done credit ia
Cromwell or Cesar. Nevertheless. when
he comes to take possession, there will
be an earthquake that will swallow him
up. When the blood Of the people ID
OuCe bSHISsU tuty Will HUI y why VI uAh6
one. And it will be the way of freedom.
Statutes do not go for much when they
are handled by the storming parties q
revolution. When the people once re-.
alize that the walls of their safety are
shaken, that the towers Of liberty are
topping down, that the sacred bulwarkl
Of free civilization are Keeling to theil
fall, they will rise in their might and
majesty. The men Of Gettysburg an
not dead-only sleeping. II is this one
thing. the suppressed spirit Of the
masses, that the Emperor of the Raj
and his marshals have not considered
Let them weigh it well, for in the day o.
triumph and spoliation the wrath Of thu
people will come upon them like blast
from the desert.
Our Government has been able to ex
act from the strongest nation on eartt
full compensation for the damages sus
tanned from the Confederate cruiser
Alabama, but it has not been able K
collect from the Union and Central Pa
citic railroads the sums clearly due {.
the General Government from those cor
porations. It is easier to bring England
to terms than to make Leland Stanfors
or Jay Gould conform to our laws.