The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1895-05-30
LAWS AGAINST TRUSTS
And The Way They Are Applied BY Courts
And Admiuistrations.

And The Way They Are Applied by Courts
And Administrations.
Some things need saying which
cannot be said by Populist papers
without drawing from the hirelings
of monopoly, denunciation as anar-
chists &c. Of course Populist pa
pers pay no attention to any such
drivel, and do not withhold their
opinions on current matters But
it is nevertheless refreshing to see
such papers as the New York World
publish the following:
Society has no reason or desire to
manacle cooperative combinations
whether labor unions or capitalist
unions-until they are used as en-
gines of oppression and for the de-
struction of competition.
But when, to ward off the evils of
excessive competition in the labor
market, labor unions try to monopo-
lie that market for their members
by acts of violence against non union
labor, the law and the whole power
of the State interfere properly and
effectively to restore order and pro-
tect the people from any such mo
nopoly.
Why cannot the law and the gov
eminent interfere as effectively when
the capitalists of the dressed beef
combination or the Standard Oil
trust monopolize the markets by
methods as contrary to law as those
of q labor union riot, and even more
Injurious to the people at large?
Public sentiment and public inter-
est are not less opposed to the opera
tons by which greedy trust gets
control of the food or fuel market
than to the means by which desper-
ate labor unions are too often tempt
ed to deprive unorganized labor of
it's freedom and right to work. |
Why is this opposition so much less
potent in curling the former than
the latter?
In the first place the use of bricks
and bludgeons to control men is a |
crime easily proved, and one with
which the machinery of the law has
long been accustomed to deal vigor-
ously and summarily. But in the
case of trusts we have to deal with
the vicarious machinery and secret
cuisines" instrumentalities of cor
that have neither souls toI
save, human character to lose nor
human bodies to suffer, no matter
what they may do to secure monopo-
lies for themselves against public
policy and the law of the land. More
over, the public utility OF organized
combinations of both labor and capi-
tai, within proper bounds, is un-
questioned; and the new task of
drawing safe line of statutes be-
tween the proper use and the abuse
Of the powers Of business combine
lions is still in the experimental
stage.
50 we see our courts and admins.
trations intent only on picking fatal
laws in our antitrust statutes. while
through the diversities of State cor
porstion laws and the wide-open
gaps between Federal and State au-
thority, the trust manipulators are
covering all branches of business
with odious and pernicious monopo-
lies, unrestrained by any statute vet
enacted or any Attorney General vet
placed in power.
They will be restrained, however
BY the demand Of the people through
The ballot-box for better laws, or for
better administration of the laws We
nave. ''Monopolies despoil and 3D.
press all classes and debilitate the
State" And when they result incl
lentally from the unrestrained DOW
r of vast capital in the hands of a
few, they are as intolerable
nd as dangerous to our social
abric as when purposely created by
aw. The feudal nobility DESTROYED
tself by abusing powers and privi-
eyes conceded for the public good.
We have, for the public good, con-
edsd enormous powers and danger
US privileges to corporations more
rome than the castled barons of old
, abuse them. But they are the
FEATURES of tho State, servants of
ne people, and can be either con-
oiled or destroyed by the power
nat made them.-New York World.