The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-24

Dliion's discussion pf the advantages "a
railway competition is exhaustive and
man knows better than himself tN 6
recent combinations have forever dispo1
OF competition so fAs.as the great throu1
trunk lines ere concerned<xand these 4
the big ash that will sooner ar later swl
low all lesser ones--and thANt competiII
Transatlantic lines. no mattefS how extcI
tionate these charges may be, afs4 mpra
ticabie, If not utterly impossible, slmp(
because any more government savorsA AZ
great land grants. such as made the es 81
ing lines possible. are out of the questfA
Mr.. Dillon's most conclusive and col
vincing arguement advanced TO prove thu
private corporations should be sslet alone
10 manage great public enterprises in Il
manner 20 please and serve themselves n 4
ours where he illustrates the superior I'd
vantage of freight transportation by RAJ
rather than by a relay of q thousand me-
to the mile, FIVE feet apart, conveying 81
ton of wheat" TO its destination. But {
claim that the present railway managed
are altogether responsible for and necef
sary TO this advance stride IN the carrying
trade is like giving postoffice officials TIL
entire credit for q system that takes q LED
ter from ocean to ocean for two cent?
when to carry the same letter by hand and
on foot and alone would be worth $500. III
hC aalS 40 tACcS AAtPtVNtA tApth0t&S ~
public service are outgrowths of q pro-
gressiye Civilizations common inheri&
anee. dependent upon no one system q
set of men.
Our present system on which Mr.. DilloE1
bases his whole argument, Is through th{
destruction of competition, in almost abb
soiute control of both supply and demand
not only in the labor and produce but ID
the money market. II
1t is also rapidly converting into wagc1
workers and dependents thousands OF
tradesmen and officials who, under conf
petitive reign, we're doing business TOT
themselves. or filling salaried position&
which have been banished b
combines. All this seems to swell
cheaper labor. and to drive multitudes OF
men out of employment, TO become home{
less outcasts, liable, through circum&
stances which they were powerless IL
avoid or control, TO be arrested a. ssva&f
rants" and set TO work in chain-ganga
1t is not overstating the fact TO say that
in the United States alone we have a NOV
ing army OF so-cailed "tramps" that nuna{
Der at least million OF men,
without home and virtually with
out a country" That this great armB
Of the unemployed is being rapidly red
cruited through the ceaseless grind and
pressure OF constantly-growing cause. MOI
weli-informed person will deny. And
when We bear in mind that miliionairesI
are OH the increase--that in the United
States Senate alone We have probably fourI
times fhe number that we had in the wholeI
country thirty years ago-it is difficult toj
ind the rule by which men prove that
the rich are not growing richer and the|
poor poorer" But the spirit of conquest
always, sooner OF later, tnds its WateTloo.l
The dictators who have perverted and
ta1 81 a - u
ambitious ends, and who have, through
superior force, foresight and craft, crushed
and ruined thousands, and indirectly made]
cripples and beggars Of millions, are dimly|
conscious of an impending condict fn|
which they who have appealed 20 force
must yield to greater force. Like the "Dld
Guard, !" that made its final charge across
the "blind road" on a bridge composed OF
dead riders and horses from It's own adj
vance squadrons, they begin to feel
that the last coniict is on.
But unlike the victims who sank down
to death in that fatal gulf, before the eyes
of Napoleon--and who never returned to
trouble their slayers--the trampied SUBJ
jects of commercial warfare who hava
gone down before the relentless avarice Of
successful railroad wreckers, stock and
grain gamblers and usurious bankers and
money lenders have lived to fight another
day." And most Of them are lighting ON
the other side, in the ranks of the "allied
forces" composed q al classes, grades
and orders of humanity. It Is
strange that men whose aim In
possession and control all the lands, gold
grain and timber belonging 10 the race In
common do not realize that their very
greed is--by multiplying enemies and inA
creasing opposition-sounding the knell OF
the present industrial system.
Napoleon's arrogance and ..mbitiou
ended in Waterloo and st. Helena.
There is no limit to the demands Of hu.
man greed and ambition. but there Is al
WAYS limit to human forbearance.
When the old South insisted that slavery
should be "let alone" that ii might be-
come national, and American citizens be-
come slaye-catchers, the doom of the In
stitution was sealed.
Yet the fugitive slave law was a neces.
sity to slavery and to the integrity of the
Union as il was" precisely as the mod
ern commercial aggregatIons, which are
turning out miliionaires at one end and
tramps at the other, and Of our ciyiiiza-
ton, are necessary to our industrial sys-
tern as IL now exists.
Having passed safely through the crisis
involved in the abolition of chattel slavery.
we have at last reached the eliminating
stage of what may be termed industrial
slavery-the last form OF physical
bondage known to civilized ma
tions, and one that can only
be preserved and maintained under
monarchical laws, backed by large stand
ing armies. Our next step must either DO
forward, through the unconditional eman-
racy, or gradually backward into imperi-
alism, such as our leading capitalists favor,
and have already made natural and easy
through adroitIy framed laws which ara
unrepublican in spirit and application, and
which thirty years ago would have fillcd
the people with apprehension and alarm.
Whether We go forward or backward the
final end will necessarily involve the
emancipation OF labor from bondage
which is growing more sure and oppres-
sive every year.
The capitalists are making a fatal mis-
take in supposing that because in the older
nations-and in several instances in our
own-powder and ball and scat
folds have temporarily checked the
cies will always succeed. 1t Is as Inn
possible for a minority class-no
matter how perfectly fortified with wealth,
military force and government patronage
they may be-to hold in continual bon-
dage well-informed and well-organizcd
majority as 1t is to keep vegetation from
growing as the sun mounts higher in the
heavens. The so-called masses" Of To-
day are by no means what they were even
a decade ago. They are thinking units.
Perfected organization and a new reform
literature have done a work that can never
be undone.
The farmers, the wage-workers, the
tradesmen and Observation-Disclosures by the
combines-and even the homeless tramps
are discovering that they all have corn-
mon course. They also have a far more
intelligent conception OF the situation
teachers have. And the party leaders
need not fatter themselves with the idea
hat the coming stnrm Il To be only m