The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-05-05
RELIGIOUS.
THE FUTURE OF OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
COMING GREAT BATTLE

COHANN ~ DAA AAH'
Pulpit Review of Current Events by Rev. Thos.
Dixon, Jr., for Sunday, April 10, 1891.
Rev Thomas Dixon, Jr., preceded
his, sermon this morning on "Eccle-
siastical Owls" by the following review
Of current events:
The last fifty years may be demon
mated the Era of Corporate Power.
The apostles of Adam Smith and Her
bert Spencer have had their day in the
economic world. We have had an era
of unlimited competition in the domain
of commerce.. The result has been
somewhat startling considering the
prophecies of the great political econ
omists. The millennium is yet afar.
In fact, a free cut-throat competition
in trade seems to have brought us to a
condition that has produced just the
opposite effect from that predicted.
Competition has been overdone. 1t
has destroyed itself. Monopoly in trade
has been the inevitable result.
The Corporation has been master of
the forces of our civilization for the
past twenty-five years. They have
made laws. They have made and I'M
made the policies of governments. Our
real rulers have not been legislators,
governors, congressman and presidents.
Our realrulers have been corporate di-
r~ectors, bank officers, railroad presi-
dents, and mining kings. We are en-
tering upon a new era in the history of
cur political economy. 1t bids fair to
be an era of stirring events. 1t will be,
in fact, a worldwide drama. No lover
of his fellow-man can be Indifferent to
the issues of that conflict. Upon them
hang the hopes and aspirations of
countless millions. In them are bound
up the d~estinies of generation yet I'M
born. The historian who preserves for
us the record will have material big
with the pathos and tragedy of the
race. It is to be a battle of Giants.
Billions of dollars, backed by greed
and lust of power, the appetites and
ambitions of men of daring genius
armed with the traditions and super
stitions Of centuries on the one side.
The toiling, restless, hoping millions,
pressing forward with resistless sweep
to the higher destiny Of the race, on
the other.
The men who have built up the gil
gantic monopolies that to-day from the
governing centres of u commercial
life r not the Williams and thieves the
ranting agitator would have Us believe.
They have not, as a rule, committed
crimes in the process of gathering their
fortunes. They are men of business
genius, Of daring enterprise, of match
less skill and Untiring industry. The
millionaire kings Of monopoly have
won their position in the fierce battle
of the competitive system. They are
not to blame. They are kings because
they have been crowned by nature
with superior strength and daring. If
our commercial system is right, these
men do moi deserve the curses and
hatred of the masses They have done
only what those who curse would have
done had they been given the oppor
tunity and power. The signs of the
times indicate that the future of cor
porations is to be a stormy if not a
tragic one. The fight to the death is
now on. We see this future of storm
outlining itself
1. In assaults through the courts.
Hitherto corporate powers seem to have
been masters of the situation in almost
every battle at law.
The backbone of the sugar trust has
been recently broken in the courts.
Charters have been revoked and havoc
played with vast fortunes figured on
paper. The time was when a corpora.
ton was regarded as an irresponsible,
soulless moloch that could violate the
rights of life with impunityi in its
to fortune. Now the corporation that
endangers life Or limb is in danger Of
annIhllatlon If a jury's verdict is taken
as final. The millionaire directors n
one of the richest railroads in America
are now under indictment for the loss
of the lives Of its employees in the re
cent tunnel disaster. The pressure Of
public sentiment was such that then
indictment was forced on the grand
jury. It is not difficult to read the
meaning of that sentiment,o of deep anC
bitter hostility. Forty years ago such
men yer considered the highest order
OF public b~enefactors. Now they arr