The Grenada sentinel., 1899-07-15
TREATS OF TRUSTS.
n..stt.onbinations Of Capital Scored
by Bill Arp.
.he Old Maxim That "Competi.
linn Ii the Life of Trade" Has
Been virtually De-
xtrOyed.

-;nces" and If he had lived in our day
r.ould have added nor in millionaires
~ ~ nil trusts or sugar or whisky or to-
" Sacco or even In chewing gum trusts.
,rrrust in the Lord and do good" is the
.nlv trust to be commended. l wonder
wv these combines are called trusts.
,sckon it is because the combiners
,.,ow it is o rascally business and they
a;ll have to trust one another to tote
t,;r and divide square, for they can't
.nforce it by law. These trusts seem to
y. modern invention--a North Ameri-
.on idca-an idea Of our northern
,retbren to make the rich richer and
the moor poorer. The consumers of oil
.,d sugar and such things are not COM
naining of the price-nor would they
complain if they got them for nothing,
hut these combines are founded on self
;shuess and greed. They disturb the
General welfare. destroy the equilibri-
nm and put the public in constant peril.
they can raise the price when they wish
n and there is no competition to keep
Il down. II competition dares to build
m against them they can destroy it in
:, week ar a month. They have no heart
~ nitv or kind consideration for their
employees, but can reduce their wages or
discharge them at their pleasure. They
lefy 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 or cheaper
than If there were no trusts, but we
would rather pay more and have free
fight. 1t is all a one-sided business and
The old maxim that "competition is the
life of trade'' has been virtually de-
stroyed.
We old men have not ceased 10 lament
the destruction of the hundreds of
small industries that before the war en-
riched our state and made the people
happy and contented. The time was
when there was wagon shop and u
blacksmith shop at every cross roads
a hatter's shop and two or three shoe
shops in every village-a lanyard in
every sediment and little mills on every
creek. But big fish have swallowed up
the little ones. Their products may be
cheaper now, but the producers have
lad to move away or go to planting cot
ton. Northern capital takes our iron
and timber and hides and wool and
after paying freight both ways sells
back to us what we had been making at
home. Time was when l wore shoes
that were made in our village-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 looking on. Iremem-
Der that the whipping post was planted
not far from the hatter's shop and how
Iran home on one occasion to keep from
seeing a white man whipped. II will
meet you at the hatter's," was time
honored 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 a race back
with some other boy. And there was
country school on the road and the boys
waylaid us because we had dared to cry
school butter."~ This reminds me to
say in passing received 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-tcacher and said
that in his boyhood the expression was
school better" and signified that "our
school j.. better than your school, land
it always provoked collision. Some
very hungry boys corrupted it into
school butter" But the town boys
never 60 to mill nowadays; the mill
comes to them. Homemade shoes and
hats are things Of the past-everything
comes from the north, and is now made
by trust; and on almost everything we
use or consume there is q duty or tariff,
and we pay our part of 1t to keep up the
government expenses and pay the pen
slons and fight the Filipinos.
Talk about trusts-that pension trust
is the biggest trust of all, and the most
corrupt. How the north stands it can
not understand. Over oOo,o00,OOo
have already gone that way, and John
Browns soul keeps marching on. Ohio
gets $13,coo,o0o this year, and Georgia
has to pay her quota of the $loo,o 1000
and gets nothing. Yes, Georgia pays
about $6,0OO.0oO annually through the
operations of the tariff. | bought n
pocketknife to-day for so cents that
| could have bought in London for
half the money. Just think Of 1t, my
brethren, $6,0oO,0oO in tariff taxes an
nually to support million pensioners.
one.tenth Of whom are entitled to 1t
under the law and nine-tenths are
frauds. This scandalous trust Is
backed by the G. A. RS and they are
backed by the republican party, and
that party is backed by the cohesive
power Of public plunder. ~
Besides all these troubles there is n
long. dry drought upon us, and our
gardens have dried up and the money
hos given out, and the cook is sick,
and l have to hunt up kindling wood
and fire up the stove before sun-up
and &C to market, and there IN picnic
% hand tomorrow and one Of the 1T
tle grandchildren got hurt on the jog
e'ng board. It tore the flesh from her