The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-05
TRUSTS.

The growing power Of trusts in the
United States IS simply alarming. A
few men with practically unlimited
capital at their control are able to di-
rect the course of vast business inter-
ests. The Sugar trust, for instance.
can raise or lower the price Of sugar
at the dictate of one Individual Such
thing as competition against a gil
gantic trust of this kind in the ordinary
way is impossible.
Our own sugar factory, for instance,
could be closed down in a single day
at the behest of the trust. A represen-
tative of the sugar trust said to the
little furry of excitement because
Of the contention over the price of
sugar between the sugar trust and the
management Of the factory, that if
necessary the trust could afford TO sup
ply the Utah market with sugar at
such a ruinously low price that the
factory could not possibly compete
against it. He suggested that that
course would not be necessary, how
ever, because at the present time the
factory could not furnish enough sugar
to supply the Utah demand, and that
in case of an emergency all the trust
would have 10 do was to allow the
Utah product to be exhausted and then
raise the price of sugar here in Utah
a sufficient amount to compensate them
for any temporary loss they may have
sustained while the Utah product was
being disposed of, and that the people
would be obliged to pay it.
AT the present time there is a story
going the rounds of the eastern press
that a sort of king bee trust headed
by the Standard Oil trust, is being or
ganized for the purpose of obtaining
control of the lead, leather. tobacco,
whisky, gas and such other interests
as may be desirable. The iron and
sugar interests are already under the
control Of this trust, and as the trust
or its representatives control most of
the transportation lines in the country
they will be in position to dictate the
matter of freight rates to any portion
of the United States.
A trust like the Sugar trust accumu-
lates many millions each year and of
course this accumulated wealth must
be profitably invested or it could not
supply an income to the trust; thus
with each recurring year we find trusts
with large surplus prepared to take
in any business which promises a fair
return on the amount invested.s
The New York Journal, in discussing
the matter OF trusts, SAYS:
When we find a few men, acting to-
gether, who are at once prudent and
enormously rich, whose living expenses
absorb no appreciable proportion of
their incomes, who have practically the
whole of a stupendous surplus available
every year for investment, and who
have the most perfect inside knowledge
of the best opportunities for profit and
the shrewdest faculty for taking adj
vantage of them, it is hard to avoid the
conclusion that those men, if they live
long enough and hang together, must
eventually become practically the sole
proprietors of the nations industries.
There is every reason to believe that
unless we have some radical change in
political conditions the next 80 years
will see the entire industrial activity
of the United States regulated by
single trust, of which the bulk of the
American people will be the employees.
What will happen then will depend
upon the degree of virility still left
in the population. It will be an epoch
from Which the Union may date an adj
vance to higher social state than
previously known, or a plunge
into complete and permanent industrial
slavery"
1t would seem to be wise precaution
on the part of the people to check this
growing greed on the part of organized
capital; thus, municipal, county and
state governments should guard
against this increased power of wealth
by timely and righteous legislation. In
every franchise granted by municipal
or county governments there should be
a clause prohibiting combinations of
certain character which can in any
way be construed as being in restraint
Of trade, or by which a corporation
can in any way exercise an unreason-
able or unjust control over the business
interests of the community.
CITIZENSHIP.