The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-06-28
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Bill Gives an Interesting Talk on
Trusts.
1tlanta Constitution.


David saith sPut not your trust in
princes and if he had lived in our day
he would have added nor in million
aires or oil trusts or sugar or whiskey
or tobacco or even in chewing gum
trusts. ssTrust in the Lord and do
goodn is the only trust he commended.
I wonder why these combines are called
trusts. Ireckon it is because the COM
Diners know it is rascally business
and they will have to trust one another
to tote fair and divide square. for they
can't enforce it by law. These trusts
seem to be q modern invention-a North
American idea-an idea OF our NORTH
ern brethren to make the rich richer
and the poor poorer. The consumers
of oil and sugar and such things are
not complaining OF the price-nor
would they complain If they got them
for nothing. but these combines arc
founded on selfshness and greed. They
| disturb the general welfare, destroy
the equilibrium and put the public In
constant peril. They can raise the
price when they wish to and there Is
no competition to keep it down. 1t
competition dares to build up against
them they can, destroy it in week or
month. They have no heart OF pity
or kind consideration for their en-
ployees, but can reduce their wages or
discharge them at their pleasure. They
defy the law and bribe courts and law
makers. Now. it may be possible that
the oil trust or the sugar trust sell us
those commodities as cheap OF cheaper
than if there were no trusts, but we
would rather pay more and have free
fight. tits all aone-sided business and
the old maxim that competition is the
| life of trade" has been virtually de-
stroyed.
| We old men have not ceased to Ia
ment the destruction Of the hundreds
of small industries that before the war
enriched our State and made our peo-
pie happy and contented. The time
was when there was wagon shop and
blacksmith shop at every cross roads
la hatter's shop and two or three
shoeshops in every village-a lanyard
in every settlement and little mills on
every creek. But big fish have swal-
lowed up the little ones. Their pro
ducts may be cheaper now, but the
producers have had to move away OF go
to planting cotton. Northern capital
takes our iron and timber and hides
and wool and after paying freight both
ways sell back to us what we had been
making at home. Time was when |
wore shoes that were made In our VII
lage-made from leather that was
tanned not far away. Time was when
l was proud of the wool hat that Ben
South made-made while | was look
| ing on. remember that the whipping
post was planted not far from the hat
ter's shop and how / ran home on one
occasion to keep from seeing white
man whipped. 81 will meet you at the
hatters,'' was timc-honOrcd maxim,
but is not now. Time was when once
a week | rode the little bay mare to
mill three miles away and left my grist
so as to have race back with some
other boy. And there was a country
school on the road and the boys way
laid us because we had dared to cry
"school butter: This reminds NE tc
say in passing received a letter the
other day from some Alabama school
boys wanting to know the origin and
meaning of school butter. My father
was an old time school teacher and
said that in his boyhood the expression
was '.school better" and signified that
"our school is better than your school,
and it always provoked collision
Some very hungry boys corrupted II
into "school butter Bit the town
boys never go to mill nowadays; the
mill comes to them. Home made shoes
and hats are things of the past-cvcry-
thing comes from the north, and is now
made by trust; and on almost every
thing we use or consume there is 4
duty or tariff, and we pay our part OF
it to keep.up the government expenses
and pay the pensions and fight the
Filipinos. Talk about the trusts-that
pension trust is the biggest trust OF all,
and the most corrupt. How the north
stands it | cannot understand. ovcl
So, ,0O0,OO 100000 have already gone that
way, and John Browns soul keeps
marching on. Ohio gets S13,0o0,OOC
this year. and Georgia has to pay hel
quota of the 1G0,O0O,000 and gets moth
ing. Yes, Georgia pays about sG,0o0,-
GOO annually through the operations OF
the tariff. bought Il pocket knife to-
day for so cents that | could have
bought in London for half the money.
just think of it, my brethren, $4,000,
900 in tariff taxes annually to support
million pensioners, onc-tcnth OF whom
are entitled to it under the law and
nine tcnths are frauds. This scanda-
lous trust is backed by the G.. A. Rs, and
they are backed by the republican