The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-16
OUR MOST POTENT MASTERS.

s. t
OUR MOST POTENT MASTERS.
For three months we have been seek
ing to escape"theshe heat and for the next
eight months we will be trying to es-
cape the cold. In our search for relief
from the summer heat we have been
happy in a comparative freedom. We
have had ice men, furnishing US with
material to cool our drinks at reason
able cost, while competing factories
have given us the highest of raiment
at competitive prices. No trust or
combine has yet found it's way into
the necessities Of our summer lives to
monopolize and extort. But when the
winds begin to come with their chilly
breath from over the Canadian Dor
der, and the departing summer
warmth compels shivering mortals to
find an artificial substitute for the
glow of the sun, then it is that the
coal trust reigns with merciless hand
and exacts tribute in measure limited
only by it's own will.
Last year we had partial release
from what is a condition of practical
slavery to the anthracite coal combina-
ton, for that is slavery which COM
pels giving of ones earnings to an
other without full compensation. But
this year, with no changed condition Of
production or transportation to war
rant it, with labor cost lower, with
money harder to get, with the need as
trarily advanced 81 ton. and there is
absolutely no. escape. If one would
find substitute in bituminous coal
the same conditions confront him, and
the price of wood is calculated to ex-
actly equal the cost in the furnace of
COAL Hard coal Is the standard, and
other fuel is marked up to a parity
with it. The consumer is as helpless
No state law can reach them, for the
trust is sheltered by the Jurisdiction of
that trust-loving and fostering state of
Pennsylvania, National legislation
cannot reach within the borders Of
state to strike down a trust, as the
decision in the sugar trust case as
sures US. We enact antitrust laws In
the states, and the trusts laugh at our
futile efforts. We try to get relief by
proceedings against the local dealers,
only to discover that they. are the more
or. less willing agents of power be-
yond our jurisdiction.
The modus operandi of the trust is
simple. 1t numbers but few men,
the heads of few railway companies
owning the coal lands and the lines, of
ransportationa-fr from them. They meet
and fix prices. Not only the price that
the coal shall bring at tide water, but
at every distributing point in the coun-
try. 1t tolerates no competition among
dealers at any point. Whether deal
er is an Independent one, that is, not
direct agent Of the trust, or whether
he Is a dealer in the local combination
he must sell at the price fixed at the
peril of the destruction of his bust
ness. If he cuts prices to compete for
business his future supplies are denied
him by the trust. If he persists in It,
the trust ruins him by underselling
him. In fact, the local agents and
combination dealers would not wait for
the trust to act. They would immedi-
ately meet the cut and go it better,
knowing that ftheo trust would recoup
them their losses Last year we had
the benefit of an attempt at sinde-
pendent" dealing. This year the trust
is recouping from consumers the
losses" made last.
When protests are made, when agi-
tation stifs rebellion, the trust, with
an insolence equal to that. of Boss
Tweed and an immunity from danger
he did not enjoy, asks the public what
it is going to do about it. And the pub
lie frets and fumes chafes and curses,
declaims and resolves, but nothing
comes of it but a sense of WEAKNESS,
of utter he1plessness and, finally, alb
ject submission to their most potent
masters, the freebooters of the coal
trust. All that they can do is to bend
the knee and humbly beseech their
claim about changing monetary stand
ards, but to take the trusts by the
throat and strangle them is the great
need of the country and Of the times.