The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-03-31

OF capital when such protection was
absolutely required. The great ten
dency of capitalists in this country
during the past few years has been to
form combination whereby few men,
comparatively speaking, could get en-
tire control of certain great COM
modify and force the consumer to pay
a rldlculously high price for the arti-
Gle or go without it. When the Fed
eral government passed the Sherman
antitrust law it was fully expected
that its effect would be to crush out
this dangerous tendency, or at least to
curtail it within reasonable bounds.
The measure has now been a law
tor a sufficient period to Judge as to
whether it has had this effect or not,
and the universal conclusion is that it
does not meet the exigencies of the
occasion. Every adult in the land
who has given the subject even passing
attention, knows that the country to-
day is full of trusts-not merely in
name but trusts in every sense of the
word; the very kinds of trusts from
which the Sherman law aimed to pro-
tect us. There are trusts of all sorts
IN almost every article which goes into
daily consumption existing in open
defiance Of the law. Yet it can not
be said that the law itself is at fault;
the difficulty is to prove exactly what
constitutes trust. Within the past
week the officers of the Whiskey trust,
or Cattle Feeders and Distilling Co.,
as they choose to call themselves, were
indicted by the Federal grand jury at
Boston for violation of this very law,
and were arrested and placed under
heavy bonds to appear in that city for
trial. This looks promising and indi
Gates that the authorities, IN this par
tlCular case at least, intend to bring
the vlolators to account. But who
doubts what the ultimate outcome will
be? The trust officials-Claim that they
are regularly incorporated company
on large scale, doing business under
state charter, and who can prove
that such is no. the case? They are
in position to intimidate every
wholesale whskey dealer in the coun-
try who is not directly connected
with them and by SO doing can abso-
lutely suppress all evidence of dam
aging nature that might otherwise be
brought against them, and tie conse-
quence is that the case will 60 by de-
fault from lack of evidence. A law
does not go into effect against a crime
until the crime itself has been proven
beyond all reasonable doubt When
such proof is not forthcoming the law,
no matter how rigorous it may be or
how severe the penalties for its viola
ton, is practically useless and to all
lntents and purposes is null and void.
Further, each successive failure Of this
kind on the part of the Federal gov
ernment to prove the violation and
exact the penalty only serves to en-
boldcn and strengthen the smaller and
more tlmid combinations, and tends
to encourage them to go deeper and
deeper with the almost positive assur-
anCe that no account will be required
of them, and that the law Of which
they formerly stood in awe is practi-
cally imperative.
1t is not within the province of the
Grote, to suggest a solution of this
difficult problem, but it can call its
readers attention to it with the full
confidence that the subject is one that
deserves their sincere investigation,
and one that the country at large will
be called upon to solve within the
| next few years.