The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-09-11


erty II Is promptly fred into-and the pub
lie approval goes with every shot. But a
few men gather in a room and destroy your
business, or boldly demand as much Of your
money as they may happen to want and the
governments guns are silent. 1t not only
has no powder and bullets for the rich and
! powerful which is well enough-but it has
no law that viii reach them-which Is not
well enough.
What more has mob ever tried to do,
than the managers of the baggng trust, for
example, are doing every dayP They take
an article Of prime necessity, and get every
| pound of it under control. Bhey then de-
| liberately double the price of it-and add to
that doubled price just what they please.
The farmer cries out against this injustice
and from the sore need Of his poverty pro-
| tests. The monopolists laugh, empty an
other bottle Of. champagne-and turn on the
| screws. In what are these men better than
! If they met the farmer in the road and, put
! ting pistol to his head, demanded his
money? 1t Is plumber in either case. 1t is
forcing the farmer to surrender under ne
cessily, what he knows and what they know
he could not he made to surrender by any
legitimate method It is simple and inso-
lent plunder-perpetrate under the form
Of law. but none the less dishonorable for
that reason.
The principle underlying the trusts"
has been denounced by every court into
whose jurisdiction It has come. Il is an in
famous principle-and as subve7sive and
dangerous as it is infamous. There IS no
difference in prirciple-~no matter what diff
ference there may be in de;aiis-between
two bodies Of men who come and demand Of
you and force from you money or property,
though one may be called = mob and the
othera syndicate. One may be violent and
the other erafty--one may work through Tie
law and the other outside Of i,-but it is in
solent and unmiilgated plunlor, in both
cases.
No danger so presses on the republic as
this. II il be less dangerous than anarchy,
i, breeds anarchy For thousand times
less, than is prac;iced in this country daily,
as DR.. Atticus Haygood hints in a strong
paper we print elsewhere, the patriots of
Massachusetts, rioted through Boston har-
bor In what spirit is the farmer left who
sees a syndicate buy up all the bagging in
the country-buy the product Of two mills
that will not join them, at six cents, and
then deliberately and hagrantlyput the price
to eight cents, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
fourteen cents, until four million of dol
lars is extorted from him above what he
paid for the same bagging last year. What
are his feelings for the government that
permits these dozen millionaires to extort
from him, above their legitimate profits,
enough surplus in one season to pay for
their mills entire and leave them nearly two
million dollars to divide? This Is but one
Crust of an hundred. And if they are
permitted to reap their rich harvests in
peace, they will multiply as did the frogs of
Egypt. Every citizen will find himself OPP
pressed as the southern farmers now are.
He win find the price of every thing he buys
set for him every morning by a committee in
New Yorlo-and this price will be such as to
drain his pocket and deepen his degradation.
As the trusts" multiply their power will
increase-and their accretions of power will
be drawn from the blood of the people.
The rich will grow richer and the poor
poorer-until at last the people will exist,
through the sutferance of an insolent au-
tocracy.
It is Emerson who says that all wrongs
right themselves in this world. Ii tie law is
Lax or courts corrupt, the people take the
law in their own haads--if the law Is over
severe or courts merciless. the juries will not
convict. We confess we DO not see how the
evil Of the trusts will be compensated.
We doubt il the government can find the
power TO control ihem. They laugh at a
public opinion that Is already considering
the lamp-rost ana violence. Secure in their
own conceit and audacious in their moneyed
power, they handle millions as II they were
dollars, aad buy, crush, ruin and oyerwhelm
al That stands Ia their way
Can Tie government control theme If il
cannot, it should at once SO strengthen Itself
that it can. No; AT the mohs that sacked
P,tisburs-uot all The anarchists that iniest
Chicago have so struck a, i,s very foua3a-
lions 50 Impaired the liberty Of is reYple
so threatened is prosperity and so inn
psr.ie3 rs own existence as The sleek gen
uemen who IN IS grea: cities manage its
TRUSTS" /. sFci into ;he nob--it hung
,he anarchists cannot is strong arm in
some way reach these more dangerous public
cucrie4?
We are frank 20 say that this matter goes
deeper w.th rs han sny other public .ssne.
We wan: 20 sec tie "t-usts' controlled. and
:he sgi.-respcc; and independence Of the
people protected. We hold certain views
on the tara, nh.ca We have subordlna,ad
20 party policy. II the protective
tariff 50 fosters trusts that the
government cannot control ,hem-if lie
houe make, can BE crippled and manpu-
lated IF wider competition is necessary to
/ give The people the benefit OF that law of