The record-union., 1897-08-05


ton. The cost of getting their crops to
market should be cheapened and the
means of distribution further systema-
tized and improved. The increased
duty has eliminated one disadvantage
and gives a substantial basis from
| which to work for other necessary inn
provement. The check put upon for
| eign competition will not alone bring
| good prices. but it makes it possible TO
secure such prices through intelligent
management of the domestic industry.
WILL NOT WORK.
! Solano Republican: On starting oper-
atoms in the cannery Wednesday morn
/ ing, the necessary help to handle the
quantity of fruit received lacked about
fifty cutters For two or three weeks
Hunt Brothers advertised for 200 Wo-
men and girls, which was done TO give
preference to local labor in accordance
with the wishes CT those who sub
scribed towards the enterprise. 1t Is
patent TO any one that there should be
no difficulty in obtaining the neceS-
sary help from local sources. A fair
price is paid for cutting and the work
/ is easily performed. There are people
| in our midst who are not overwhelmed
with this worlds goods, but 1t appears
that poverty is often endured to uphold
pride. In the cannery the daughters
of some of our most respectable citi-
zens have found employment, and we
| commend their action in awaiting
| themselves of chance to work. ThoSe
who refrain from earning a dollar by
| honest toll from feelings of vanity are
imbued with ignorance and folly Hon
! est labor is a credit to amy citizen, and
/ only those pompous persons who pose
as figure heads in the human race have
/ any aversion to it, No one can now
blame Hunt Brothers for making ar
rangements to obtain outside help.
THE TARIFF.
Santa Cruz Sentinel After a few
years more it will be hard to get up
| fight on the tariff between Republicans
| and Democrats that will excite any
| body. 1t may be that in time the DEM
! ocrats will become more keenly pro-
tectionist than Republicans, due to the
changed conditions in the South There
is considerable free trade sentiment in
New England wanting raw material
! free being a manufacturing center, and
in New York and Boston. being sea-
/
South is only beginning to manufact-
ure, and seeing the benefits of protec-
ton to infant industries is turning from
free trade as a matter of self-interest.
Parties more than once have lost some
of their distinctive ideas under the
pressure of economic changes, and this
is likely to happen to Democracy.
BLUNTLY SPOKEN.
Santa Cruz Sentinel: Senator Mark
| Hanna is reported as saying: Il am
not a defender of trusts in the sense
that l want to perpetuate any monopo-
lies or uphold any oppression. But a
great deal of this antitrust talk is
demagogism pure and simple. 1t comes
from men who do not know what they
are talking about, men who are full
of theory, but who would not know a
business operation if they met it walk
ing down the street. These men who
howl about trusts and make themselves
believe they are friends of the people,
by such a course simply bow to what
| they think is a popular prejudice and
! make war on the business interests.
The best lawyers in the Senate say it
is impossible to frame a stronger anti
trust law than the Sherman Act If
| we go further than that we simply
prosecute business and interfere with
the rights of property
There is plan common sense in this
statement. 1t is doubtful if any law
can be passed, or indeed should be,
that will prevent men from forming a
partnership, which is practically all a
trust is. If it is lawful for two or three
men to form an association for bust
mes purposes; if a thousand men can
| become shareholders in a corporation,
why cannot half dozen of manufac-
| turing concerns combine to carry on
production? The main fear of trusts is
that they will surely be monopolies, but
the earth cannot be monopolized save
by making things SO cheap that a small
firm cannot compete. How this can
hurt the purchaser is hard to say. A
greedy trust, or an overstocked one,
can not live-it will break of it's own
weight or through increasing COMPETE
ton. No one likes a monopoly; but, as
Senator Hanna says, people ought to
know what trust is before discussing
! it. The real danger of a trust is not in
it's intent or organization, but that it's
wealth may corruptly obtain undue adj
vantages from the lawmaking bodies.
This is the case with the sugar trust.
The law may not be able to annihilate
trusts but it has no business to aid
them. If left severely alone they will
govern themselves properly or else
| break.
WHITTIER SCHOOL.
| Los Angeles Record: The Record s.
Investigations at the Whittier Reform
School make much worse showing
than even the recent acts of rebellion
foreshadowed. To-day's action by the
trustees in special session here will be
awaited with deep interest We be-
lieve, and doubt not that the public
also believes, that this Institutions
trustees. are entirely capable of con-
| trolling the situation, but whether the
officials they have appointed to the
school are equal to their responsible
ties is another thing. They should be.
Indeed, they must be, or the dangerous
state of affairs will be critically in
creased. The trustees have been ac
cused of too much politics in changing
| officials. AS far as that goes, every
State in the Union has a like complaint
about the control of its institutions. If
it be necessary to have a Democrat here
or a Republican there, in heavens
name get a Democrat or Republican
that will do the work he is paid for.
There is an unlimited supply of people
of all political faiths that want posi-
tons, and out of all this available ma
terial it should not be impossible to
select those that will do the best work
If ex-employes are secretly fomenting
rebellion there is way to deal with
them. The trustees must act promptly