The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-02-14
Friday, Feb. Ia, 1890.
Consolidation.

solidatlOn, and the effort is vain one when
fights against it. An individual cannot
stand alone and expect successfully to OPP
p,se combination. Hence the trusts and
monopolies that there is such an outcry
against are impelled and compelled by nat
ural laws which cannot be kept back. Sharp
competition among individual producers,
induced two or more to join hands and prop
erty and form copartnership. Partner
ships were found to be inadequate to the &c
mands of progress and sharp competition,
and incorporated companies with joint stock
capital was another advanced movement in
order to cheaper products by employing the
largest and best machinery and a large
corps of workers divided like an army into
gangs, each gang employed in a special
branch of the business, which avoided the
loss inevitable in changing from one kind
of work to another. These large concerns
had many advantages over smaller bodies,
in capital, discipline and labor skill, conse-
quently produced better articles at less
cost and waste of material. The same
nemesis followed and overlook these large
firms that preyed upon the individual and
the copartnership. The bane of competi-
ton entered to destroy their profits and
contend for a share or all Of their market.
Then followed the trust" that pagod thing
which is now threatening 10 devour the
substance of the land. Corporations are
forming copartnerships. They are losing
their individuality and many are combin-
ing in one having head which controls
with supreme power. The last is "cracker
trust" with capital of 100000 which
owns every large cracker factory ir New
York. This cracker trust which operates
wholly in New York has taken out char
ter in the State of Illinois. This single
fact reveals glimpse of the liliputian pow
er of the States compared to the colossal
proportions that business transactions are
assuming. When business organizations,
whose operations may reach every portion
Of the country, can procure a charter from
any one of forty-two States, the time has
arrived when new adjustment is required.
The State is inferior to the creature it Gre
ates. Clearly stronger power is necessary
to control it, and that power can only be
found in the National Government. All
charters for business whose operations
necessarily carry it outside of the State,
such as railroads telegrarhs, telephones,
etc., should be granted only by the United
States Government. And no State should
permit corporation to operate within its
jurisdiction which did not procure its char
Ter privileges either from that State or the
United STATES.
The great changes which have fastened
so rapidly forward, within the time of the
present generation, treading on each others
heels, have outstripped government control.
and being exempt from that retraint of law
which prevents one citizen from preying
upon another, by cheapening production
they have killed off all competition and APP
propriated their immense gains to line the
pockets Of comparative few. Combined
capital and labor saving machinery, steam
and electricity, have usurped the business
which would employ tens of thousands,
under the old regime, and divided the earn
ings amongst few. This has created a
class OF millionaire and is fast multiplying a
class of paupers.
We cannot go back and divide the work
among all, and thereby increase the cost Of
production, but the word is forward. Meth
cd, economy, still cheaper production is the
watchword, but the millionaire making bus
mess must be stepped, or the balance wheel
of society with the weight all on one side
must surely burst. This problem is Great
ing ferment in society and many are the
changes and expedients that are proposed
Our U. S. Senate is pointed out as a club Of
millionaires, in which a representative of
every monopoly is found and the demand is
loud for election of the Senators by ballot,
direct, in place of by the legislatures. Thu
millionaires would be hurled from their
seats speedily If that change were inaugural
ed. The State governments are pointed
out by others, who pronounce the governors
and legislatures of the separate States useless
and expensive pieces UfpOlitical machinery
which create confusion. In place of code
of laws uniform for all parts of the country,
we have hundreds of conflicting laws; whar
is law in one State being not law in another
The bugaboo of central government has
died away, and is no longer heard from any
but fossil of the eighteenth century. Con
gress is the creature of the people as much
so as the legislature of any of the States
And the President is no more in comparison
with the power and majesty of the people
than one of their governors.
The consolidation of business which has
destroyed the Individual has only stepped
out of lis swaddling clothes. 1t is bound to
go on till all the railroads, telegraphs and
other natural monopolies are combined I'M
der one management for each class, and the
great manufacturing industries will not as
now have innumerable heads, but each class
will be brought nnder one control. But
before this organization of business is COM
pleted, which is at present in steady prog
ress, the people will insist and compel the
government to assume an oversight of all.
The great increase which is the result OF
natural forcea harpessad nv the inventions