Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-05-22
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
EFFECTS OF MONOPOLY.
Mr.. Powderly's Speech Enables the Bos
ton Globe to partly ..See the Cat"


Mr.. Powderly's Speech Enables the Bos-
ton Globe to partly 'see the Cat"
That was statesmanlike address of
Mr.. Powderly's in Faneuil Hall 1t con-
tanned very little theory and much fact;
very few distractions and much con-
crete illustration.
He pointed. as the Globe has done be-
fore now, to the idle coal miners of his
own State and the idle farmers of the
West each suffering for the products of
the other, vet unable to make the eX-
change. What is the reason of this sim
full waste? In this case, what chiefly
robs both the farmer and the miner IS
monopoly, the great modern highways;
and another cause is the monopoly of
the deposits of coal which God or nature
buried in the depths OF the earth, not
for the use of a few coal barons only, but
for the use of mankind Mr.. Powderly
we'll asks: why should a few men hold
that which warns the nation in their
five fingers. and not be Enclosed until
six agents sitting in New York city shall
say whether it will be 10. 100000 or p
000 900 tons a month that shall come
from the mines?'
1t is not worth while to blame the
men who own the mines, or the men
who own the railroads, except so far as
greed makes them rapacious. The larger
question which Mr.. Powderly evidently
had in mind is whether it is wise thing
for a nation of 90, 900, 600 people to allow
its great roads and great natural depos-
its of minerals to be the absolute prop
erty of few men. We jealousy guard
!, L., ~
les, and in these times no individual
ever thinks of owning the county roads
and eXacting toll upon travellers. Mod
ern industrial development has now
progressed SO far that the question has
become a very serious one, whether the
public ownership of rallied roads is not
as important and necessary as the public
ownership of common roads. And as to
the mines the same question is agitating
the minds of thoughtful men. Why, as
Mr.. powderly asks, should few men
own all the coal that is under the earth?
They have not put it there, nor bought
it from anyone who did put it there.
Yet they arbitrarily limit the supply of
this prime necessity of life, forbid the
starving miners to bring it to the sur
face in exchange for the grain of tho
West, and charge the public whatever
they think the traffic will bear. The
monopolist of the great modern high
ways. on the other hand. charges what
ever he thinks the farmer and consumer
can pay for transportation. The miner
produces coal cheaply enough, and the
farmer raises grain cheaply enough; but
between these two monopolies the coal
h0fHrf "a
farmer. and the breadstuffs have become
dear before they reach the miner. And
this is not all When the coal mOnopo-
list shuts down the mine for some pur-
pose of his own. the miner, though his
hands are as strong and as willing as
ever, is forced to be idle and wageless
Then his purchasing power is gone and
the farmer loses his market.
1t is much easier, however, to see the
wrongs in the present constitution of
society than to point out a practical way
in which they may be set right without
doing more in Justice. 1t is easy to say
that the Government or the State should
own the railroads and the mines, but
how? Shall it buy them? That would
entail upon the people an interest bur
den as great, perhaps as they now pay
for transportation and mine rent. Shall
it confiscate them? That, especially in
the case of railroads, would be unjust;
for it is right that the owners should be
compensated for the capital they have
expended in construction. Shall it tax
them so that large part of their profits
will go into the public treasury? That
seems little more feasible: and from
Mr.. Powderly's remarks on taxation we
Judge that to be his way.
If Mr.. Powderly is still a little ahead
of public opinion, it is at least moving
in his direction. The man who is now
gray and bald may live to see some of
these great changes accomplished
Boston Globe.