The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-05-15
A E DANGER.

It is hardly possible to exaggerate
the danger that c~onfronts u country
in the financial combinations now so
generally known as "Trusts." They
are the invention of those fertile brains
which wish to accumulate fortunes
without work and in the shortest pos
sible space of time, regardless of the
rights of others or the obligations
they are under to their fellow men.
In our sight, they are wholly averse
to moral principle, and against the
genius of those principles which lie at
the basis of our country's institutions.
They disregard the obligation Of good
to the masses, and prey upon their
substance without a moments thought
of the havoc they make in the homes
of the poor and dependent classes.
In a mild form they have existed
for a long time in the different com
bines to sustain prices of the different
commodities required for general con-
sumption; but this without the pooling
of capital leaving each dealer at liberty
to carry out his own plans, and do
his business in his own methods.
Even these, however, often bore very
heavily upon the poorer classes who
suffered in the purchase of coal kept
up to an arbitrary standard, or who
were forced to do without some of the
ordinary provisions of common life.
% These "trusts," however, are a
vastly greater instrument of monopoly
and torture. They gather millions of
capital with the avowed purpose of
depressing those who will not join
them, and of raising the prices of all
the common necessities of our daily
lives. With their millions of money
they are enabled to brazenly defy the
Investigations of legislators until
nothing tangible can be depended
upon as a remedy from State or Con-
gress. At least, the delay in supply
ing a remedy is now so prolonged
that the people see no end to their
impositions and no prospect of legal
relief.
We are blessed with the vision of
"trusts" connected with every article
we use, or are forced to purchase,
piling up the prices to the
and at the same time grinding down
the producer till the latter is in despair
and ruin, while the former is worse off
than any serf in the old world or my
slave in the new.
This work promises, also, to go on
until the masses shall rise in a revolu-
tionary spirit and overthrow or de-
mollsh these vast monopolies, causing
a more gigantic war than our last one;
for the aggravation is fully as great
and the masses affected are vastly
more intelligent and more generally
distributed throughout the country.
1t is giving a foothold to those who
are ever ready to plunge any people
into the abyss of anarchy.
We have indeed a greater danger
In these trusts" and it is time that
this danger was realized by our legal
bodies in all our States, and measures
taken to ward against it. The great
fact stands against "trusts" hat they
are unprincipled, inhuman, immoral;
that the very ground upon which they
are built up are that they have no
responsibility to regard the wishes of
man or the laws of God. They are at
war with the good of society and with
every humane consideration, only
looking to their own selfish profit,
though it be brought about by the
ruin and anguish of myriads-the
ruthless crushing out of every interest
opposed to theirs.
A fearful danger is menacing the
peace and prosperity of the country
and we cannot too soon have a remedy
against it.-Maryland Farmer.