The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1894-05-31


ershever punished, they are spir-
ted away on trains. Not only
40 the corporations keep armed
retalners, they keep oily and
servlle courtiers to do their bid
ding in other walks Of life, their
paid lobby bribes the voter, their
PAID editor feeds the public with
hers their corrupt lawyers and
Judges peddle out justice to the
highest bidder, their attorneys
go on the bench or into senate
TO vote the will of their masters
Inc ambitious young man,
the'r power is so terribly great.
the pulpit fears them. For thc
plush-covered pew is the seat Of
the millionaire, the pew over
awes the sacred desk, they can
close up a magnificent natural
harbor like PortRoyal, ,on the Car
ohna coast and keep it closed,
they can compel congress to give
them millions of the taxes of the
people te prepare them an infe-
rlor harbor at another place at
lew miles distant like Savannah.
they can destroy a city by a
change of freight rates, they can
steal my land under the law of
eminent domain"
They can violate the law without
foar, as they do evory State in the
union. They are kings moro cru
81 than the Caesars, marauders,
more sapacious than tho spanish
pizarros and Alvorados, conspira-
tors moro subtle in their designs
than the Bargias or Catalines; cor
ruptionist, moro systematic, cold
bloodod and unscrupulous than
tho minions Of tho basest monarchs
that ever sat on q thone, combina-
ton among them have locked up
, l"r gambling purposes the treasur-
- 'rs of the immose coal fields, mino-
, raj dlsposits, timber lands, oil
w"lls, gas wells, and kept tho bon
oht away from tho public at large.
Tho markets of the world have
), > boon clutched by tho throat, in vi
=, olatlon of law, and The price of
every commodity taken away from
competition and given to the trust,
small dealers everywhere in every
thing, oxist at the pleasure of tho
large doaler The individual sinks
! before the corporation. The man
f goes down under the blows of the
ring" money, combined monov,
unprinciplod, law-protected mo-
noy, dominates the street, the mar
, kot, the court, the church, the le-
gislaturo, the editorial room, tho
State, tho school-room, the home.
! Verify, verify, tho rottenoss of
tho latter days Of Romeo of tho
lattor days Of tho French Monar-
chyls upon us. Tho question is,
doos society contain the seods of
its own redemption? Arc theso
true mon and true womon enough
to ovorturn and rebuild? TO it,
lustrate one Of tho ways in which
corporations victimizo the public,
lot us consider some examples of
Watering stock. In 1869 tho
Now York Central and the Hudson
river railroad consolidated. Thor
capital was $45,OOO,OOO. They at
once watored it up to $9O,OO0,0OO,
IL clear steal of $45,000,OOO. Since
that time more "watered" has boon
put in and the capitalization is
now $146,O00,O0O Of this sum $11O,-
100000 is fictitious. It exists by
virtue of pen, ink, paper and ras-
cality. 1t exists again by roason'
of the fact that tho people can be
made to submit to almost any,
thing. No wonder Vanderbilt
scornfully said, "The public be
damned" The Erie railroad ia
just as bad. It's real capitalization
should be 865,OOO,OOO, but it has
boon watered up:to $16O,6O1,OOO,
" stcal Of noarly $100,OOO,OOO. On
these waterod stocks the public is
compelled to pay dividends. La-
borers on the road have their wa
gos cut down, and shippers have
their frolght charges run up in or
dor that those enormous blocks Of