The herald., 1896-11-01

;l'les aurlh9 the long cold winter that
IS coming. Little do we realize it here
Win the bright sunshine over us and the
flowers blooming around us. but hack
there 1t Is the season when the winds,
howl1ng through the naked trees. sneak
TO the poor in . language not to be mis-
understood of time Of suffering and
want, for well they know that the heart
less monopolies having control of the
necessaries of life will take advantage
to the utmost of their need.
IL is not an over-production of coal;
II IS not an under-production; it Is SIM
ply and solely monopoly of one of the
natural resources of wealth. Again,
does any one believe that 1t is because
oil flows so freely from the earth that
every one who burns a lamp has to
pay double price for it? Is it because
it is plenty or because 1t is scarce or
does that cut any figure whatever in
comparison with the fact that the en-
tire output Is controlled by monopoly
and fictitious value placed upon it
because 1t Is an article of prime neces-
sity? And SO we may go on through the
Whole category; the ones performing
the labor to produce these different
kinds of wealth receive less and less of
the wealth which they produce, while
the cost of these necessities to the con-
sumers Is increased through the manip-
ulations of the trusts. Do you ask where
the increased profit goes to? for an
swer look at the list Of trusts of the
United States; 1856 Of them with an ag-
gregate capitalization of oven fifteen
hundred millions of dollars. That is
more than three times the wealth of Lii
Hung Chang, the richest man in the
world. More than the national debt.
More than all the money in the United
States. And these great aggregations of
capital are for what purpose? To pro-
mote the welfare Of the people? Not
much! They are to prevent competi.
ton and throttle industry by destroying
private enterprise. To make labor thu
servant and slave of capital by con-
trolling labor's entire output and fore
ing the laborer to accept the conditions
imposed. And yet they tell US that the
interests of capital and labor are one.
They certainly come very near being
one under the present system, and that
one capitals. for labor has no show.
Here is where the beautiful theory of
reproduction comes in: The output
of a certain kind of wealth Is stopped by
the monopolist in order that he may put
up the price, Result: Laborers are de-
prived of employment. while they, in
common with all consumers, are obliged
to pay more dearly for the necessities
which they purchase.
So labor Is robbed at the
beginning and at the end. Are its
interests one with the capitalist and
the monopolist? 1t cannot be so In the
nature of things, because these natural
resources, the mines, the forests and
the lands being in control of the corpor-
ations it is for their interests to force
the price of labor down and to force the
price of the product up while it is pass
ing through their hands, and that is just
exactly what they do, and there being so
little money in circulation among the
people and that little being so almighty
dear, it gives them unlimited power over
the products Of labor, and consequently
over labor itself.
And when we say that this is wrong
they tell us that we are trying to array
class against class and to stir up the
enmity of the poor against the rich. But
no; if that has been done it has been
done by the selfshness of those who
have taken what did not belong to
them, simply because they had the
chance. We propose to take the chance
away from them, and are anarchists of
the deepest dye. Let the free coinage of
silver once be inaugurated and let the
money in circulation be increased to
about $50 per capita and all kinds of
business would receive such an impetus
that the trusts and combines could no
longer control the whole volume of bus
mess. People would be embarking in
enterprises on their own account, as
they did when money was plenty, and
would not be waiting around for the
few crumbs that fall from the rich mans
table. But business in this country is
no longer done on the openly competi-
tive, free-for-all plan that gives every
man an equal chance. 1t is dominated
by the trusts. 1t begins and ends with
trust. Everything the people need from
the cradle to the grave. in it's manufac-
ture, distribution and sale, is controlled
by one or more of these heartless mo-
nopolies. Everything. from the con-
densed milk trust and castor oil trust,
all the way down through to the casket
and burial case trust and the tombstone
Trust You can't live without patroniz-