Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1897-11-01
A MENACE TO THE NATION.

ment is to lose millions of dollars by
the transaction and thereby line the
pockets OF a syndicate Of capitalists
who contributed heavily to the cam
paign fund which debauched the
country that Mckinley might be
president, but that contamination Of
the bargain as is agreed upon be-
tween the administration and the IA
vored syndicate will concentrate in
the hands of one man powers that
will make him the absolute master Of
the transportation business of the
United States.
This man is j. Pierpont Morgan.
He is now plotting, with good pros
poets of success, to get control Of
the Baltimore & Ohio road. With the
requirement of this property and it's
merging into the vast railroad m,n-
opoly which he now directs, the last
elements Of competition in the carry
ing business between the Mississippi
Valley and the Atlantic seaboard. will
have been crushed out. Place in
Morgan's hands the Union Pacific
and his mastery of the railroad situa-
from ON the continent will be us COM
plete as is that Of the Rockefellers in
the oil field. He will be the supreme
dictator of the prices Of all products
and other property in the United
States. By fixing freight rates at
whatever figure he pleases, Morgan
can determine the prices of all Ia
Dor and the products labor. He can
build up new centers of commerce
and manufacture and destroy these
already in existence If it suits his
purpose to do 80. Thus he
can control the value OF land by shift
ing the centers Of consumption. He
can issue millions Of watered stock
and wiring from the producers of
wealth tribute in the shape of divi-
dends to keep up the fictitious
values Of his securities. ...
No present law can reach him or
curb his power, because no lawmaker
had apprehended the danger of such
stupendous forces being concentrate
ed In the hands Of one man He can
set at defiance and laugh to scorn the
interstate commerce act. New en-
Rctments will have to be placed upon
the statutes to check the evil of his
sway. This will be the work of years
and will usher in an era of corruption
in national legislation such as has
never been witnessed in the new
world, for HE resources for manip-
ulating the lawmaking body will be
imitless until the people awake to Il
full realization of the enormous
forces Of corruption he commands.
Better that the government should
lose every dollar it has invested in the
Union Pacific than that the road
should pass into the hands of Morgan
under the circumstances that now en-.
viron the deal. Better that the gov
esnmert should present it's interest In
the property as free gift to some
one who would guarantee to keep II
as an independent line, competing
fairly and openly for the transporta
ton of the products of the farm and
shop and factory, than that it should
be swallowed up by Pierpont, Nor
gan, Coils Huntington, the Wander
bits and their English associates.
President Mckinley can avert this
nationsl calamity by simple act. He
can force his encouragement to en-
ter an appeal from the decree Of fore
closure that was obtained by ques
tionable methods. This would give
congress an opportunity to scrutinizt
the deal, and congress would dare moi
approve. It would also stimulate
competition in the bidding by afford
ing a chance for bidders to get to-
, gether tho purchase money and agree
among themselves on terms.
To his own conscience and his sense
OF obligation to the honorable tradit.