Omaha daily bee., 1882-11-14
A DANGEROUS v I.


nopoly methods and extortions. The
st. Louis Post Dispatch points to the
fact that their newspaper organs, both
republican and democratic, are teem-
ing with articles and specious arrays
of figures pretending to prove that the
great railway cancellations have vol.
UNFAIRLY reduced transportation charges
below the maximum rates fixed by
law, and have thereby increased the
price of labor. The Omaha Repubh-
can is q good instance in point. II
asks us to believe that the selfish
cunning of unrestricted monopoly,
looking only to dividends on period
ically watered stock, will prove q bet
ter safeguard of the public interest
than any "~demagogue statute" and
that all legislation against monopoly
combinations and consultations, or
for the purpose of restraining ex-
tortion and fraudulent and I'M
just discrimination, is unwise
and hurtful to the industries
of the country. These arguments,
artfully prepared to blind the public,
and to convince the wavering, are be-
Ing spread broadcast by the monopoly
press. They are intended as prelimi-
nary to more effective measures in the
various legislatures throughout the
country, not excepting that OF Ne
braska. The success of monopoly
alliance with corrupt politicians has
stimulated the hope that a general
movement along the line may carry
the day. In republican Pennsyl-
vania and in democratic Mis-
souri, the restrictive measures
of the constitution have been
trampled under foot through the con
nivanoe Of the dominant party in each
of those states. In our own state the
provisions of the Doane law and the
statute providing for the taxation of
corporate property have been deied
through the liberal purchase or bull
doing of officials and by monopoly
control of the state board of equaliza-
ton. 1t is now announced that a
powerful effort will be made next
winter to repeal the Illinois railroad
and warehouse law, and that the
managers Of the movement are oon-
fident that they will at least succeed
in practically multiplying this law by
having the board of railway commits
sioners abolished. 1t is expected that
the democrats and one faction of the
will lend themselves to
this movement on the ground that the
board has become q mere political
machine in the hands of the execu-
tive.
Says the Post Dispatch: 1--WE have
seen 80 much of this sort of thing that
1t has created In the popular mind a
profound distrust of the managers OF
both parties in connection with ques-
Of this character, and if they are
wise they will recoil from the brink
on which they are treading. It
would be well for the great corpora
and their allied monopolies II
they also could only DO induced to en-
q suspicion that their power
over politicians may be once too often
Haunted in the face of an indignant
Already the prevailing belief
Is that their attorneys and trained
cohorts of retainers are in every caucus
and WELD too much influence In d.
recting the action of every party
convention. The fact that q few
colossal aggregation of capital in pos
session of all the transportation of our
vast domain have combined to put
down all competition, to sustain each
other in violating laws, and to exact
from overawed Or corrupted officials
the privilege of charging 'all the traf.
fc will bear" or of discriminating as
they please In the exercise of an auto
cratic power over every interest and
every industry of this country, Is
cause for alarm and for counteraoting
organization upon the part of the peo-
pie. And sooner or later the power
of the people to uphold their oonstitu-
ton, to enforce their laws and to ex-
act a strict loyalty from their public
servants, will assert itself. The only
danger is that the final ~provooation
may urge them too far.
Already the talk of putting down
the oyergrown aud arrogant power of
the corporations is swelling to a ma
tional chorus. AT present it goes no
further than the suggestion of laws
limiting aggregations of corporate
capital, providing for the periodical
decease of corporations and for put.
ting them to death and confiscating
their property for cause, that they
may BIO like persons, more amenable
to the police power, and
more careful about the part
they take in legislation. The
instinct of self-preservation should in.
struct them to pay a little less atten-
ton to conventions and legislatures,
and d little more respect to laws APP