The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1889-07-13
TRUSTS.

any Weekly Newspaper in the County.
TRUSTS.
EVER since the Standard Oil Company
began buying up and consolidating the pet.
roleum refineries of the country under one
management, and demonstrated the ability
of combined capital to control the quantity
quality and prices of both the crude and
refined product of the entire oil fields of
America, there has been constantly grow
ing tendency to combination on the part OF
manufacturers and dealers in almost every
commodity, both useful and ornamentalS
for which demand has ever been created.
OF course the process of concentration was
for few years slow one, and the devel-
opment of such consolidated interests into
what are now known as trusts has been of
very recent date. But 1t has been discov-
cred that the dear, good people are very
forbearing and subseryient to the will of
the captains of industry, and these same
captains haye, therefore, been encouraged
to reach out little further and with less
of secrecy as to their methods, until at the
present time fully 70 per cent. of the legiti-
mate business of the country is controlled
by less than per cent. of its people, and
that too under methods of procedure aues-
tionable as to legality and morally as dis
honest as sin itself.
Take the coal combination for example.
Under existing regulations the producers
are robbed by wholesale at one end, while
the consumers are mulcted at the other.
The unfortunate mlner must purchase his
power and supplies of corporation at
trust prices of 800 per cent. profit, and then
receive pay for about two-thirds the coal he
mines at starvation prices for his labor. He
is then expected land in many cases re-
quired) to spend his money at a pluck-me
store owned and operated by the same cor
poration, and after his supplies, groceries
and rent are paid he is oftener in debt to
the company than otherwise. The combi-
nation controls the amount of coal TO be
mined, and whenever there is danger of a
well-stecked market the mines are closed
down. Many gigantic coal strike during
the past ten years has been sought and
forced by the operators in order that an ex-
cuse might be furnished for advancing the
prices of coal to the retailer. A corporation
with one million tons OF coal on hand finds
it profitable to inaugurate strike by oppres
sing the workers and then advance rates
one dollar ton ''because of the strike"
Thia haa haan dopa and mill douhtIoe, bo
done again. The coal barons are rapidly
becoming millionaires, while the tollers
who risk their lives for bare subsistence
to amass their wealth for them are daily be-
coming more wretched and debased, with
little hope for better things this side of the
grave.
But the people whom circumstance has
decreed shall work for these trust monopo.
lies are not the greatest sufferers by any
means. 1t is the multitude whe must haye
their products on which to live. Thel far
mer in his purchases must pay tribute to
the iron and steel, oil, bagging and twine
trusts, and then find himself al the mercy
Of the -four combination when he wants tc
neither milestone, and, if there is not mort
gage on his farm to-day, its dollars to
doughnuts there will be in less than two
years at the pace we are now travelling in
that direction. The mechanics and labor
ers in the cities if possible are worse off than
the agricultural workers. Every thing the
poor mans family require to make them
comfortable is constantly being enchanced
in value by the formation of trusts, while
the same power is being used to reduce hi:
wages and condition to that of a menia
serf. So great a necessity as sugar has
= been advanced in price by the combination
of refiners over so per cent. in the las
twelve months, and the estimated profits
for the Sugar Trust for 1889 are not les:
than fifty millions of dollars. They have
declared dividend of nearly nine million:
for the quarter, and the canning season
has only just commenced. Here is con
undrum: With common white sugar at tel
cents now, what will it cost to sweeten 6
poor mans cup of coffee in 1891.
But it seems useless to 60 further with
detail. A similar illustration could be giYer
with reference TO nearly every single thinG
useful to mankind in general. The ques
tion to be considered at this time is: Wha
can be done about it? Legislation has beer
attempted by several States to remedy thu
evil by making such combinations contra
band of law, but with no success as yet.
syndicate controlling fifty millions of dol
lars can drive a team through any law eye
framed if it pleases them do so. The peo
pie are well-nigh helpless when il comes t
contest in the courts.
But something must be done. and tina
very soon. Trusts are robbers and the peo
pie are being swindled at every turn. Whai
is wanted now is few judges who are no
blinded by the glitter of shining gold, ant
who will be able TO discern the thief il
broadcloth as well as the yagrant in rags
The man who steals a sack Of -four is sen
to prison; the men who, under guse of law
rob the people of millions go unwhipt o
justice. To steal the flour is theft; t
mulct the people of millions is business.
We wonder if there is no limit to the pa
thence of suffering people. We believ,
there is, and we fear that when their patti
ence at last becomes exhausted there ma
be some who are to-day deaf to their en-
treaties who will sorrow that they did no
sooner hearken to the peoples cry.-Laboi
Tribune.
- ---
SIT is ALL RIGHT FOR THE CARBoH
ADVOCATE to advocate the removal of tn,
County Seat to Lehighton but it sort o
strikes us that it is in a hopeless minority
M. G. Times.
Is that so? Brother Rinker has eyidentl,