The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-09-05
nv party and then capture the men select
TRuSTS AND POOLS.


Chicago convention committed the party
TO "such restrictions and guarantees in
the control of railroads as will protect
the people from robbery and oppression
and against 1.-THE absorption of wealth by
the few, the consolidation of our lead
ing railroad systems and the formation
of trusts and pools.
If we would carry out the letter or
spirit Of the platform the duty rests upon
the Democratic party of North Carolina
to select as candidates for the legislature
none but men who will see that the
people divide the profits with the rail
roads by receiving in enhanced prices of
the products of their farms portion OF
the money now eXtorted from them by
enrmous freight charges. Faithful legis-
| In tors can help to remove these burdens
from the shoulders of the producers di-
rectly by suitable legislation regulating
charges and indirectly by passing an act
providing for the election Of railroad
commissioners by the people, and the
selection of United States Senators who
will not be controlled by the railroad
companies. Our candidates for Congress
must likewise be pledged in the most
unequivocal way to the support Of n
more stringent act regulating Interstate
commerce and Of such measures as will
secure the services Of faithful commits
sioners. The farmers of North Carolina
are losing more by the dimunition in
the prices Of the products Of their farms
caused by the exOrbitant freight charges
than has ever been extorted from them
by the highest protective tariffs, oppres-
sive though the duties imposed by il
may have been. There must be some
thing radically wrong in a system, which
exacts for carrying our wheat and corn
from one town to another in our own
State, as much as it costs per bushel to
transport the same articles from the
Northwest almost across the continent
No wonder. too, that the wage Of labor
ers in our mills are low. when our manu-
facturers are compelled to pay as much
to transport cotton from the nearest
towns in South Carolina, as it costs the
New England mill-owner to move his
supply from the shore of the Gulf OF
Mexico This is a contest, in which it
behooves the operatives in the mills to
make common cause with the farmer
against the greed and power Of monopo-
lists, in order that they may receive in
wages a share of the enormous fund
now expended by their employees in the
extortionate freight charges.
GOVERNMENT BY INJUNCTION.
The Chicago platform denounces "the
arbitrary interference of the Federal au-
thorities in local affairs as a violation
of the Constitution Of the United States
and a crime against free institutions"
and enters the objections of the party to
government by injunction as a new and
highly dangerous form Of oppression by
which Federal judges in contempt of
the laws Of the States and of the rights
of citizens, become at once legislators and
executioners."
The monopolists in their desperate
greco have packed the United States
Courts with federalists and have preci-
plated upon the country the dangerous
judicial legislation and usurpation, a
gainst which Thomas Jefferson, the found
er of Democracy, warned all lovers of lib
erty in the land.
Since this ringing declaration was in
corporated in the platform at the in
stance of William Jennings Bryan, the
anti-monopoly Democrats Of this country
have been defeated or defrauded at the
polls. The result has proved the signal
all along the lines for a concerted move
ment Of the powers Of monopoly, through
the judicial as well as legislative and ex-
ecutive departments Of the Federal gov
eminent to destroy local self-government
and personal liberty and to inaugurate
the arbitrary rule of moneyed aristo-
cracy. Federal judges have perverted
4 I'D 10 nc re
of conscience, not only by granting in
| functions to prevent the executive Off
GERS Of the States from protecting the
people against the greed Of monopolies,
but by forbidding the poor working men
from walking along the highways, be-
cause they were suspected of combining
to force their princely oppressors to pay
better wages. The descendants of the
men, who fought for the right Of trial
by jury of the vicinage from Bunker
Hill to Kings Mountain, must determine,
whether they will submit to the mockery
of justice in the very temple, which their
fore ia theirs erected as it's last strong
hold.
A protective tariff is passed which, it
is claimed, will raise the price of coal.
The starving operatives, remembering the
promises Of their employers, demand a
division of the increased profits in the
shape of wages, and on refusal leave the
mines. Combined capital can always find
judge who will stretch his authority
to further its designs. When the poor
miner, who cannot afford horse, starts
out on foot to consult with his comrades,
he is halted on the highway by armed
men. When Pierpont Morgan, the prince
Of monopolsts, orders out his palace car
to instruct his subordinates how to con-
troll States, Legislatures and Courts, the
mandate flashes along the lines, that
traverse a continent, to side-track all
trains till the prince passes by. What
matters it to him, that such delays bring
heartaches to the afflicted or loss to the
little men of business! This is govern
ment Of monopolists, by monopolists,
and for monopolsts.
To remedy this great abuse, which is
revolutionizing the government, the la
boring and producing people of all class
I l.. W.