Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-09-29


ample, so that one company will not gain an
advantage over another and receive more than
its share of the stock and bonds of the trust.
IN tact, these valuations are greatly inflated.
Finally all this property is transferred to the
trust, huge corporation with enormous cap-
tai. For this work the fnaHcers also receive
a large amount of stock and bonds of the
trust. The forty small corporations are dis
soived and the trust is born. It Immediately
executes mortgage on its property and issues
bonds usually equal to the amount of its stock.
The stock and bonds are given in liberal
amounts to the promoter and the fnancier and
distributed among the stockholders of the
forty small companies. 1t is plain to the dull
est of us that this process means immense
quantities of 'water" in the stock and bonds
OF the trust. But what do the promoter and
the hnancler care about that?
The ones who suffer are the innocent who
purchase the securities as investments and the
men and women who are thrown out of EN-
ployment by the closing of factories made nec-
essary by the ECONOMY" of the trust manage
ment. Eventually the wages of the employed
are reduced and the consumer pays tribute in
high prices in order that dividends and inter-
est may be paid to the owners of the heavily
"watered" stock and bonds of the trust. This
is the evil feature of the present craze for
trusts, against which the financial journals and
authorities cry out They predict fearful
panic IN a few years as a result of it. They
are thinking of the distress which will come to
their clients
1t is not true that better article, lower
prices ready employment and better wages will
follow as result of the trust, for when it be-
comes necessary to pay dividends and interest
on heavily watered stock and bonds it cannot
be the case. But, aside from this, the entire
scheme of the trust is inhuman. 1t treats man
as beast of burden, or degrades him to the
position of slave
This brings me to the most serious aspect of
the trust question. Throw aside all considera-
ton of the money involved, paw no attention
and thought upon the effect which these i'm
mense combinations of money seifshness and
greed have upon the character and life of our
people.
The growth of corporate influence, the abuse
of corporate privileges is a decided menance to
the free institutions of our country Individ-
uals, firms and small corporations can no longer
dc profitable business. The trust is crushing
them out with weapons as heartless as they are
relentless There is no longer such thing as
independence in business.
Harsh as it may sound, the trust will divide
the people of this country into sharply-defned
ella ses-masters and slaves. The tendency of
the trust is to place all business into the hands
of few men whose ability lies in their power
to make money. All employees will be treated
as tools to do the bidding of their nercenary
masters.
wish had the space to call your attention
to the evil influence of the trust upon the pol
tics of the country. Its silent workings in our
state legislature might be illustrated its meth
DDS of corrupting the press might be exposed.
One financial authority says that the capital
stock of the trusts now in existence amounts to
six thousand millions of dollars. Another f.
nancial journal says that two thousand FIVE
hundred millions of dollars of this is the capital
stock of trusts born since January I, 1898. It
follows this statement with the startling asser-
tion that one thousand seven hundred and fifty
millions out of the two thousand five hundred
millions represent "water."
During the month of March, this year, the
total capital of trusts incorporated in New
Jersey alone with capital more than ten millions
each amounts to one thousand and five million
dollars.