Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-04
COMPLEMENTARY DANGERS.

Mr.. Erastus Wiman has lately attracted
the animadversions of considerable por-
tion of the press by declaring that the
monopolstic combinations of capital are
a greater threat to the stability of our in
stitutions than the disorders arising out of
strikes. 1t is but fair to say that some OF
Mr. Wiman's expressions were open to
criticism as asserting that there is more
need for calling out the military against
such a concentration as the anthracite
monopoly than against the strikers at
Buffalo. That was decidedly injudicious to
say the least; but the truth which Mr..
Wiman utters is so pregnant that it should
not pass without commendation and sup
port
All the forces which the State can COM
mand should be employed to put down
either the illegal combinations of great
wealth or the disorderly acts of working
men. The civil power energetlcally and
independently employed can do the
former the military is sometimes neces-
sary for the latter. But while the means
necessary to combat these dangers against
government by law may differ in degree
it is an important truth that the evil which
calls for the least show of physical force
is the greatest one.
In the first place the lawless acts of
strikers are always done under excite
ment; and as general rule respect Is paid
to the law when the heat of conflict is
past. The trusts and pools violate the
law deliberately, perSistently and with
unblushing defiance of legislative enact
ments and judicial decisions. A defiance
of law by men in high position and as a
means of gaining wealth sets an example
of lawlessness which is ten times more de-
moralizing than the repugnant violence of
a mob; and experience has shown that it
is generally successful in its notification
of law, while the violence of strikers,
when resorted to, always defeats itself.
Next, the direct results of the combina-
ton policy in the control of the neces-
saries of life is more far reaching and in
sidious than the violence that we, have
lately contemplated. A half dozen or
score of people may be injured or killed
by an outbreak. But the steady addition
to the cost of life must Sacrifice far more
Population being limited by the ability to
maintain life, every absorption or imita-
tion of the means of living means a sacri-
flee of possible life. To those whose
means make an increase in the cost of fuel,
for instance, signify only the loss of some
luxury, it may not seem vital matter.
Nothing is more certain, however, than
that the addition Of dollar per ton to
the price of anthracite coal above the fair
figure fixed by competition will, among the
hundreds of thousands to whom this
means a limitation of the supply of
warmth, cut off thousands of lives of in
fants or aged people; of the infrm, the ILL.,
clothed or the insuficiently fed, the policy
of artiicially enhancing the cost of life is
not less murderous because it does not
stand face to face with its victims.
The fact is that the great combinations
of capital and the masses of discontented
are compliments of each other. One pro-
duces the other and each aggravates the
other Together they form the great
threat to democratic government by law,
and when this republic awakens to the
gravity of the situation it will repress both
with the utmost energy