The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-11-05


TIE fact OF overshadowing i'm
por.ance connected with the Union Pa
rific deal is not that he governments
10 lose mi,licEs of dollars by the trans
action and thereby line the pockets OF
. syndicate OF capitalists who contrib
uted heavily TO the campaign funo
which debauched the country that NC
Kinley might be president. but that
contamination of the bargain as agreed
upon between the administration anu
the favored 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. lie
ie now plating. with good prospects oil
success. to get control of the Baltimore
& Ohio road With the requirement
Of this property and its merging into the
vast railroad monopoly which he now
directs. the last element of competition
I'm the carrying business between the
Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic sea-
BOARD will have been crushed out. Pace
in Morgan's hands the Union Pacific and
his mastery of the railroad situation on
the continent will be as complete 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 al whatever figure he pleases. Nor
ran can determine 1he prices OF all la
Dor and the products of labor. He can
build up new centers of commerce and
manufacture and destroy those already
in existence if il suits his purpose 10 do
SO. Thus he can control the value of
land by shifting the centers OF con-
sumption. lie can issue millions OF
watered stock and wiring from the pro-
ducers of wealth tribute in the shape
of dividends 10 keep up the fictitious
values of his securities.
No present law can reach him or curb
mis- power. because no lawmaker had
apprehended the danger of such stu
pendous forces being concentrated in
the hands of one man. He can set at de-
fiance and laugh to scorR the interstate
commerce act New cnactments 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 rs has never been witnessed in the
new world, for his resources for manip-
ulating the lawmaking body will be
limitless until the people awake TO 70
realization of the enormous forces OF
corrupt.on 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 environ the
deal. Better that the government should
present its interest IN the property as 4
free gift to some one who would guaran'
tee to keep il as an independent line
competing fairly and openly for the
transportation of the products of the
farm and shop and factory. than that
1t should be swallowed up by Pierpon'
Morgan, Coils Huntington. the Wander
bits and their English associates.
President Mckinley can avert this ma
tonal calamity by simple act. lie cal
force his encouragement 10 enter al
appeal from the decree of foreclosure
that was obtained by questionable meth
DDS. This would give congress an op
portunity to scrutinize the deal. ant
congress would dare not approve.
would also stimulate competition in tn
bidding by afrording chance for BID
ders to get together the purchase none,
and agree among themselves on terms
To his own conscience and his sense o
obligation to the honorable tradition
of the exalted position he now occupies
Maj. Mckinley owes this plain duty
st. Louis Republic.