The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-09-12
BY#CLINKsCALEs= =LANGsTON.
BILL ARP
Talks Awhile about the Question Of
Trusts.
atlanta Constitution.

For heavens sake don't let us make
any such blunder. 1t will be as much OF
trust as you will find anywhere"
That is what a delegate said when the
Alliance fixed the price of cotton at
twelve and half cents pound. But be
was alone. Nobody backed him; nobody
said.amen.
Every man is for himself and the devil
take the hindmost. Human nature is the
same everywhere, and some kind Of trusts
will be formed by every trade and profes-
sion, if it can be done. A trust is gener.
ally the reaction of hard competition.
1T is business going from one extreme to
thepother. I remember travelling on a
splendid steamboat from New York to
Albany, and we we're carried for nothing,
and had a fine dinner thrown in.
An Isishman remarked, Sand faith ne
can thravel chaper than we can shtay at
home, and We can do it in less time" I
came back in few days, and bad to pay
more than full fare, for the competition
lines had formed q trust, and they soon
made up what they had lost. When I
was q merchant I had competitor who
was smart and not overacrupulous, and he
ran me pretty hard and we cut prices low
down. and lnade/no money fer several
months !; but in course of time ne met in
New York at the hotel and made friends,
and bought our goods together, and form
ed q trust and marked up our goods and
atuc!- to it, and ne gave cur customers
shall Columbia" and made money end
recovered what ne had lost.
The lawyers have fee bill-a trust
land SO have the doctors. The lawyer
charges 30 much for losing your case and
so much for gaining it. The doctor won't
even graduate his fees, but gets the same
whether he kills or cures. Old DR.. Let.
sem wrote an epigram about himself that
illustrates
!. /; .t"When folks are i'll they come to I.
I physics, bleeds and sweats 'em.
Sometimes they liYe-some metimes they die.
What's that to mel. Letsem.
The masous, carpenters, molders, prin.
ters and nearly all the tEadesnen have
trusts. They have their rates and rules,
and if q fellow don't join and conform
they call him scab.
"Rowland," said I, care you going to
hold your cotton for twelve and half
cents pound ?"
Z; .!aafWhat for ~, said he.
"Why, I see that the Alliance has
passed such a resolution" said I.
"Well, I don't know anything about
il, t,"said he, "and ! don't care. My note
is out for guano and supplies, and I'm
gwine to sell my cotton in time to meet
my notes. That's what I promised to do,
and I'm gWine 10 do it."
Rowland" sale I, 'tyou are acab."
Most every profession has got some
sort cfa trust or combination to prevent
ruinous competition. reckon the
preachers would have one if their preach
ing was uniforn-more of whatness-
but it is 80 yariegated they can't price it,
and so the poor fellows have to take what
they can get.
The railroads competed and cut rates
for a long time and made no money,
and 30 they made pool and got along
better, but have never made any money
to speak of. The construction company
that builds one makes some money, and
SO do the manipulators Of the bonds, and
the receiver and the lawyers, who threw
the concern into chancery. The roads
don't earn any clear money. The orators
Of the Alliance abused and Denounced
them awfnlly at Macon and Montgomery.
They made it hobby-a hobby likejute,
but they ought to give the devil his own
property. Here is an iron property of
100 acres that is within sight Of the East
and West railroad, and the owner has
been offered twenty thousand dollars for
it, while a better property, mile away,
wouldent bring q thousand. The railroad
has added nineteen Thousand dollars to
the value of that mine and gets no credit
for it and is in the hands of receiver
right now-and so is the; Rome and De-
catur and SO have been the Alabama
Great Southern and the East Tennessee
and the Memphis and Charleston and
ever SC many more. Everybody wants a
railroad to come right by their door and
just as soon as it comes they begin to
abuse it. Between the Legislature and
the railroad commission and the people
they have hard time and it seems to me
that there is no inducement or temptation
to build q railroad except the love of
power and dominion-the same love that
made us buy niggers in slavery days.
The niggers never made US cent, but we
did love to own them. did, and l
haven't repented of it yet.
But let US hope that the Alliance will
work world of good, and twill do good
if it. keeps out of politics. The leaders
have been riding the jute horse with
whip and spur and the great issue in
Georgia is who killed him. I reckon he
is dead. They say ne is, though [ read
about some big farmers who are scabs
and won't fall into line.
believe that the people would rejoice
to have good old-fashioned, sensible
farmer for Governor-a kind of Cincin.
natus who would be modest enough to
stand back and wait till the farmers
called him-but the candidates are
coming out before they we're called, and
have announced themselves and got to