The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-25
TRUSTS AND COMBINES.

slayery.of labor made possible through
the various combines of corporations
which have in destroying wholesome
competition, ruined local enterprise
and robbed localities of their leading
industries. But to find Trusts de-
nounced by New York paper and that
paper charging that Trusts for the
most part have their inspiration III
creditor banks, is to say the least q
surprise. The Commercial List and
Price Current of New York City III
its issue of July Goth charges Wan
street with being the gambler ana
wrecker Of national industries through
its so-called financiering schemes. The
railway combines of the country, 10y
Wall street ''financiering," have been
forced into combines for the purpose
of enforced dividends. Only the rail-
WAYS OF the country which have been
able through their respective directors,
TO stand independent, have been able
to escape the hands Of court receiver
ships. Companies in being compelled
to deal with the bankers OF Wall street
have become the victims of those
banks And what is true OF the rail-
road companies is equally true OF other
companies and corporations represent
ing almost every important or leading
interest of the country. 1t seems al
most superfuous to allege examples,
for they are as plain as the nose upon
ones face Look, for example, at
Cordage. where one set of bankers Is
playing pull devil, pull baker with
another set, for property, which was
ruined chiefly through the mlsmanaSe-
ment of a third set, with reorganiZa-
ton plan that was all finance" and
commissions, and fees for the ''finan-
ciers' who conceived it. Look at the
Distillers' Trust, which had its origin
in speculation; died through specula-
ton of the most infamous and dis
honest character, and is now being re-
organized concurrently with game Of
speculation of the most barefaced de-
scriptioni Look at the Sugar Trust,
the Tobacco Trust, the Lead Trust, the
dilapidated Chicago Gas Trust and
General Electric-that most misman-
aged and overfinanced property-the
whole collection being enough TO bring
disgrace on their respective industries.
At the bottom of all is the banker with
his loans, the promoter with his COM
missions, and the street Spectator
with his "pools," made up oftentimes
of the very directors Of the concerns
themselves.
So that which in independent compe-
tition is conceded to be a good thing
when combined in n Trust becomes
ruinouS to the stockholders of the re-
spectiye concerns and to the public
alike. 1t is not the corporation which
is wrong but the combined corpora
tons which prove ruinous, disastrous
and wicked. 1t is perfectly safe to say
that not a single industrial corporation
in this country that was ever formed
on business principles and Differed
and managed by practical men failed
because it was a corporation. Over
every corporate failure in this country
is the trail of the promoter, the banker,
| the ''financier" or the Spectator. What
| is needed more than anything else is a
! generation Of "home rule for indus
trial corporations" and the disappear
ance of the banker manager" from
the scene.
Wichita has not boosted in the past
hardly single big interest that has
not been hampered or destroyed by
the tentacles of the octopus Trust.
| The Cracker Trust closed up and de-
| stroyed its flourishing cracker factory.
i Chicago Grain Trust destroyed
Wichita'S grain market and almost
ruined some Of our Touring mills.
| bankrupting others The Meat Trusts
| of Kansas City and Chicago have sys-
tematically jeopardized our livestock
and packing interests, and as for the
Missouri River Transportation Trust,
or railway freight combine it is I'M
necessary for lis to tell the business
men Of Wichita what they have paid
| this robber rule.
As the paper mentioned we'll puts it,
bad times bring reorganizations, and
reorganiZationS let in the bankers.
Good times should get the bankers out
again. They have neither lot nor part
| in the business of manufacturing or
distributing; it is their business to
lend money on good security to men
who use il in the business of manu-
! featuring or distributing. When they
have reorganized company. it is for
! them TO turn it over 10 men who under
stand the business. 10 manage it for its
| owner.
If security holders in industrial cor
porauons want 10 serve their own in
terests in the best way possible. they
will strive TO eliminate from their bus
mess the speculative and "dnancier-
| ing element as far as possible. If
bankers have sense they Will see that
their interests are safer in the hands
! OF men who know their business. than
in their own hands. if they Try To man.
age a business which they do not TN
doFStand.
\ SHORT WHEAT CROP.
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