Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1891-05-14

that the farm is impoverished and
the wolf is gnawing at the latch
string of his door, the farmer is
waking up and reaching out his
hand and laying hold on the gov
eminent machine. We all saw it
coming-this farmers movement.
1t was in the air, fresh and breezy
with the scent of the clover about it.
1t was an outdoor movement. For
a time it sat on fence and whit
tied and talked, and we paid small
heed to it. Then it got down and
stirred around, and the women took
a hand in it, and it drove to camp
meeting and gathered in the store,
and it grew strong and determined,
and it pulled its pants outside its
its boots and walked into the United
States Senate and took a seat; it is
here among us, filling the chairs of
State, and lifting up its rugged
voice in the halls of legislature.
In 1888 the Western farmers ask
ed Congress for bounty of TWEEN
ty-five cents on each bushel of wheat.
Why: Because corporations were
subsidized from the public treasury
to the farmers disparagement be-
cause nearly everything he ate or
drank, everything he wore, and
every utensil he used was by corpo-
rate combine raised to an unnatural
price because all that he produced
by his labor was gambled in and
speculated with to his loss and i'm
poverishment.
Never in the modern history of
the world, perhaps, have such COM
binatiOns of wealth prevailed as
those which have controlled the
products, natural and artificial, of
this people since 1885. Then sprang
into life that creation of American
ingenuity, that irresponsible, secret,
law-defying, impersonal thing call
ed a trust" into which combines,
one after another, the industries of
our people were merged. First the
cOtton-seed oil trust, with fifty mil
lion dollars capital f; the sugar trust
with sixty million dollars the rub
Der trust with another fifty million
dollars then the steel, lead, linseed
oil, pitch, cordage, nail, oil-cloth,
binding-twine, tobacco, and all the
other trusts" including the school
states and paper bags.
One of the members of the Sugar
Trust testified before a Senate Com
mittee that the object and purpose
of the Trust was ''to regulate the
output and to keep prices steady -
that is to say in plain words, to
keep down the supply, force up
prices, and lock out labor. Thus,
instantly on their formation, they
reduced the supply. Among others,
twelve oil factories, six sugar REIN
cries, twenty nail factories closed
their doors prices rose; labor
sought in vain for employment f; the
cost of living increased and poverty
fell to the lot of many as an offset
to the riches of the few. The out
put of the peoples industries was
and is absolutely controlled by these
corporate combinations, and every
man who held pillow in the furrow,
or cut down the timber in the woods,
or sowed the seed and garnered the
harvest of his industry, yes, and
every man who iished in the waters
for living, was placed under the
burden of an'iniquitous tax.
What change has come over
this people since the old bell in
Philadelphia rang out liberty to all
the world. In those days the hus-
bandman found his market near at
hand and established the price of
his products by the law of supply
and demand i; then Futures" were
not marketable possibility then
farms were small, unmOrtgaged, and
owned by individual proprietors
and every rood of ground sustained its
man."
Then the wants of the family
were limited, but well supplied.
"For him light labor spread her wholesome
store.
Just gave what life required, and gave no
more;
His best companions, innocence and health,
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth"
Presently, however, demand in
creased, and when at last, amid the
gradual change, the dark shadow of
war settled over the land and gave
still greater and more unnatural
impetus to the power of consump-