The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-07-09
TRUSTS AND COMBINES.

drunkenness ana gambling such a
disgrace, that now no self-respect-
ing man will engage in either; and
public opinion must be educated to
look with equal disfavOr upon the
trusts and combines.
Men who would scOrn to do
thing they really thought was base
and mean, do not Hesitate to form
trusts and enter into combines to
lower the price of wheat or raise the
price Of ice. They seem never to
have thought of the moral turpitude
of their acts. 1t doesn't seem ever
to have occurred to them that in the
first instance they are unlawfully
Withholding from the producer a
profit he has fairly earned and is
legally entitled to; to deprive him
of which is unlawful, immoral,
wicked and wrong.
Likewise it seems to have escaped
them, that to combine to increase
the price of commodity, is to ex-
tort from others a profit they are
neither in law nor good morals en-
titled to.
Judge Anderson, in his special
charge to the grand jury concern
;no fha ioo oon,hina IN NoobyilIa
advised the jurors not to waste any
more time on crap players and petit
larceny cases, but to turn their at
tention to these bigger offenders,
whom he denominated as "public
enemies"
And so they are, and so they must
learn to regard themselves. Little
combines and little trusts, are just
as wrong, morally, as big ones. The
Sugar trust is wholesale robbery {;
but wholesale robbery is no worse,
morally, than retail robbery. They
each take something from another
that they are not entitled to, moral
ly or legally, and are alike guilty.
A Federal Supreme Court Judge
characterized tariff protection" as
"legalized robbery" but to trusts
and combines he could not give
even so respectable a definition, for
their robbery is even without law or
license.
1t is time the people were taking
some practical steps towards stop
ping this growing evil. Men should
be taught that however we'll be-
haved and companionable and re-
spectacle they may be, they shall
not-contrary to all law and good
morals-combine against the public
good, to extort from and Cypress the
people.
1t is time respectable men who
have engaged in this nefarious prac
tice, should be made to realize what
they are doing; and not only that
but to stop doing it. 1t is time the
laws were being enforced against
public enemies and those who filch
from the public at large, as well a:
against the pick-pocket and peti,
thief who steals from the individual
/. Men have made their millions by
cOrnering the wheat market, who
would be insulted if accused of rob
berry, and their friends would stanC
aghast at the charge of thievery
But what else are they? By theiI
manipulations have they not de.
frauded the producer and owner O
the wheat out of his profit? Have
they not by their Vaccinations, got
ten something for nothing? Hav,
they not falsely represented the con
ditions of the crop and market, t.
effect the price? Has not all thi
been done contrary to law? AnC
t what is this but lying and stealing?
The Nashville Sun is the only
{ paper in Tennessee that has done it
= full duty to the people in fightin!
and exposing and prosecuting thes
trusts and combiners; for the tim
has come now when we should have
less to say about the combines, ant
more to do with the combiners. w
l congratulate the Sun that it has s.
far won its fight as to have the ic
3 combine brought before the courts
We congratulate the people of Nash
vile that they have in the Sun sucl
a fearless champion for their rights
and that they have as their Circui
! Judge an official who dares to d
his duty. The people and the pres
: should do their part in commencing
| and upholding this enforcement o
q the law, thereby saving to the pro
! Queer what he has Justly earned
. and also saving from themselve
many good men who are engaged il
these unlawful and wicked practices
y Speaking of trusts the Nashvill
Sun says:
= Judge Anderson's charge to tn
grand Jury on the subject of trusts