The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-05-18
VOL. XVIII.


great transportation companies, rings and
trusts Of this country2 They keep no
books open to the public, they furnish no
statistics, they are responsible to nobody,
they are amenable to no official visitation
Yet they collect more taxes, and by meth
DDS more discriminating and unjust, year
by year, than is collected for all State
and Federal purposes in these United
States. To all complaints by the public
they reply by simply inviting the public
to help itself Things are perpetrated
daily which if done by officials who were
responsible in any way to the people or
dependent on them, would hurl the perpe-
traitors from their places with velocity
which would scarcely be expended until it
reached convenient tree with outspread
ing branches.
The first great illustration of a monopoly
which exists by the omission Of the law to
interfere, which naturally suggests itself
as a villainy of unrivaled proportions in
all this earth, is the Standard Oil Com
pany. It's history is well known to the
public, though the quantity and profund-
ity of its iniquities, like the diversified
mysticisms of the Talmud can only be
fathomed by the life long study of great
and patient scholars. No man who is not
willing to forsake both father and mother,
family and friends, and for one generation
at least follow only the record of its trans
actions, need hope to 5, more than the
nebulous outlines of the expressions and
corruptiens which the laws of a free civil
ized republic have permitted it TO commit
untroubled. Their monopoly of the oil
trade over sixty millions of people and
four millions square miles of territory is
as complete as could be made by the ukaSe
of an autocratic car. A man who at
temptS to sell oil obtained through any
other source or at any other price than the
one fixed by the mselyes receives at orce an
inquiSitorial visit from the Standard On
Company, whose apparltor notifies him to
quit If he be wise, he obeys and lives;
if he refuses to obey, relying upon the
laws of his country to sustain him IN his
rights as a man and a citizen, be IS doom
ed Profiting by this pernlcious example,
the brood of yipers has multiplied and will
| multiply. The Cottonseed Oh Trust Is
another instance. When it was found
that this glorious Southern plant, which
not only clothed the greater part of the
| world. but furnished rich food for animals
! and fertilization for the fields. contained
/ also a rich and palatable oil, mills for its
| extraction were established all over the
| South at once Then the trust was organ
lied to monopolize the business. large
| combination of capital enabled 1t TO buy
all the mills that We're willingly offered
for sale, and to FORCE the sale of the rest,
A story is told of a mill-owner in Alabama
| which is instructive. He refused to sell.
| The vehm-gericht warned him. He ship
ped ten thousand gallons of oil from
| Mobile to Trieste; the vessel which bore 1t
touched at NV York for more cargo.
The trust shipped by the same vessel ten
thousand gallons of oil to the same place
| and the same consignees, with orders to
| sell below the stubborn Alabamian price
| so far as TO leave him no profit dead
| loss to him was the result; and he was
| notified that II should be the same thing
| every time. Not being able to keep up
the fight against so great a combination,
he surrendered and sold to it his mill.
! Can anything more outrageous be con
| ceived short of high way robbery2
Then comes the Sugar Trust, formed for
| depressing the price of raw sugar and in
creasing that of the refined article Every
refinery IN the United States but two. the
newspapers tell US, has been subdued in
the same way and forced to join the com
bination under penalty of bankruptcy and
ruin The Whiskey Trust pursues much
the same policy. One by one these com
binations,i conspiraceS against the pubic
welfare and the freedom of trade, are be
ing formed in respect to the production
and sale of all the leading necessarles OF
life. Step by step the evil genius of mo-
| nopoly is nullfying that freedom of trade
among cur own people which the policy
Of our fathers established. by the constitu
ton, and which all men, OF whatever
financial opinions, admit to be the Chief
source of our prosperity. Strange to say,
whilst this tendency on the part OF capital
to create monopolies and suppress compe-
tition by combination is on the increase,
the tendency of our legislation and admin
istration of the laws is to favor it. Their
influence in the enactment and the execu-
ton Of our laws seems supreme. Those
who favor their enterprises are described
4 as practical statesmen, devoted to the
business interests of the country. whilst
those who oppose their schemes as dan
gerous are called cranks and demagogues-
Surely this state of things, requires cor
rection There is a conservative element
in our business society as ID our political
and this element should be Invoked There
are those who will give as we'll as take, hive
and let live who looking beyond the present
things of selfshness, have respect unto
the recompense of reward; who wish tc
see our country as free and its laws as just
in fact as they are in theory There are
citizens who desire to encourage to the
utmost all the forms and combinations o
capital by which its great and beneticen
mowers can be made to serve our race. ant
who vet believe it both wise and patriotl'
to restrain it from that extreme use which
crushes the weak, plumbers the public ant
nullifies the law.
T. B. VANCE.