The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-06-22

cause and results are both injurious,
looking at them from the side of
right and freedom. Nor is this evil
Of recent origin. The Philistines
monopolized the blacksmiths' trade
so that the Israelites were compelled
to take their plowshares to them
to be sharpened. What was the
cause of this monopoly? Selfish
ness What was the result ? The
result was, that when the Philistines
went to war against the Israelites, the
latter had no weapons, aud what is
worse yet, had not a blacksmith
among them. The pages of history,
all down through ages, are marred
by the record of injurious monopo-
lies. The feudal system, which
fourished in Europe from the 9th
to the 18th century and whose terri
bic influence shook her from center
to circumference, was vast monopo-
ly. 1t was this desire to monoplize
that prompted Alexander the Great
to conquer the entire world, and then
to weep because there was not an
other world for him to monopolize.
Napoleon !, by his selhshness and
ambition had monopoly of all
Europe at the beginning of the pres
ent century, but his voracity and
greediness carried him to his ruin.
England has monopoly of the East
India trade, and also the opium
trade of China and what can be
more horrible than the latter? Our
own nation, while the slave trade
disgraced her, had a monopoly Of
cotton trade. But how did the cot.
ton growers secure this Their work
was done by slaves without costing
them anything to speak of, and on
this account the cotton growers in
other parts of the world could not
compete with them. But as soon as
the slave trade was overthrow the
cotton growers of the south ceased
to have monopoly because they
were forced to treat their former
slaves as human beings.
Then we may cite, as another ex-
ample, the great railroad monopolies.
There about 100, 900 miles of rail
road in the United States represent
ing fixed capital of Sc, ,ooo, 900,
exclusive of the rolling stock and cir.
culating capital, which raises the
sum to the enormous amount of $I2,-
ooo, 200, 900. The capitalists who
own the majority of this amount, are
formed into syndicates ard thus con-
troll and monopolize the entire
amount. Then, too, there are the
telegraph monopolies, the standard
oil monopolies, the iron, steel, cot
ton and wooden monoplies. The
tendency of all these is to raise
the price Of their respective ar.
ticles, and thus they are injuri.
Gus to the people at large. The
monopolists are encouraged in this
wholesale robbery-for robbery it is
by the SO called protective tariff,
by which means they are constantly
becoming richer, while the poorer
classes are poorer, because the money
goes to the monopolists. This sys-
TEN is known in this and other coun-
tries by the deceptive name of "pro-
lection to native industry" and is
still in full operation in this country.
The motives of this system are evil,
and the results are injurious 10 the
welfare of this nation. On account
of this, tariff goods are higher than
they would be in a free market. A
part of this extra price goes to the
Government, but the larger part goes
to the favored monoplists. Is no,
one honest citizen as worthy as an
other : And what right has gov.
eminent to deprive one citizen OF
his rights in order to help an
other who clamors for government
help to exhalt himself and thereby
depress his fellow citizens
Hon. H. G. Burchard, of Ill.,, cal
culated that of the contribution OF
each family in the United States on
the average, under the iron, steel,
cotton and wooden duties, S. went to
went to the United States treasury
and 50 to the monopolists. During
the 20 years from 1860 to 1880, the
American people paid, needlessly,
under the tariff, $Ia,ooo,ooo,o 900,
and last year they paid $S5o,ooo,ooo
and not one penny of this money
went into the treasury Of the United
States, but right into the trearury of
these favored monopolies. Thus
these forced contributions are taken
from those who are the least able to
pay and given to those who are the
best able TO do without them and
who can not show the least claim TO
them whatever.
When citizens see that their gov
eminent is a respecter of persons,
that few rich and influential persons