The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-06-02
VOICE OF THE PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSIONS.
State and Coast Opinions on SUBJ
Z ~ jects Of Living News
Interest.

L interest
Riverside Enterprise: If we have
Large crop of fruit in California, the
lrellef must come by devising means of
getting the product into the hands OF
the consumer at a figure at which he
will be able to buy. This can be done
by introducing economies into produc-
ton and distribution. Economy in pro-
duction is the study of every horti-
culturist in the State, as well as the
subject Of scientific investigation at
the Government Experiment stations.
We are promised economy in distribu-
ton by the widening sphere of co-op-
eratiye organizations. This is partic-
ular cause for hope in the new move
ment to give the growers control Of
the means Of transporting their pro-
duct by the establishment of a refrig
orator car Hne.u Every thing that tends
to bring the consumer nearer to the
producer will diminish the evil Of
over production There are plenty
Of hungry stomachs ready to eat and
plenty Of shivering bodies ready to be
made warm; let those stomachs be full
and those bodies be warm before we
too hastily make retrenchments in pro-
duction.
CONTROL OF THE TRUSTS.
Vacaville Reporter: When an article
in general demand is controlled by a
trust and prices are raised to point
which are not justified by any other
necessity than the dividends the trust
desires to pay on it's watered stock,
there are two ways in which the peo-
pie will be able to control the situa-
ton. The first lies in the direction
Of broadening the area Of competition.
In other words, make the trust meet
the competition of the world by lower
ing the duties imposed by our tariff
laws. 1t is pretty we'll understood that
| a trust can control almost the entire
output of any particular country, but
it is not likely that it will be able to
| successfully control the product of the
world in a particular line. The Nevada
Bank millionaires tried it some years
ago with practically unlimited capital.
They failed, and others who make a
similar attempt will be certain Of fail
ure. In the line of transportation and
in supplying communities with neces-
sites like light and water, the remedy
for the suppression of trusts will lie
in the direction of public ownership.
Municipal ownership ante-dates private
ownership Of water supplies, and there
is no reason why communities should
not engage in supplying at cost many
of the necessities of life, which in
America are commonly in the hands
of corporations. Transportation, tele-
phones, telegraphs, water and light are
readily seen to be proper subjects for
municipal control, and in proportion
as a trust dominates the situation,
1Gx,t@ oTx- jo6
We do not believe that trusts will be
permanently the menace, some fear.
They are all over-capitalized. To pay
dividends on their watered stock they
must charge prices which will create
disastrous competition. The trusts
stocks which have been listed for the
longest period on the New York Ex-
change shows this.
THE TRAMP EVIL.
Los Angeles Herald: There is no hope
that this tramp evil will ever be cured
until it is recognized as a great social
problem and treated accordingly. We
must give over attacking the tramps
and attack the system that makes
tramps. We should make it possible
for men to live rather than punish
them for living. In Germany, under
decidedly paternal Government, they
: have met this issue in logical and
sensible way. They provide public
farms where a man out Of employment
can be sure of obtaining work and
earning enough to sustain himself IN
til he can do better. This imposes no
disgrace upon him, but helps him to
maintain his self-respect and keeps him
from becoming a tramp or beggar. How
much superior is such a system to the
indiscriminate helter-skelter method of
jails, rock-piles and tramp chairs
which has been resorted toA in this
country! It is a million times better
to prevent citizen from becoming a
tramp than to let him go down without
a helping hand, and then try to re-
| claim him. But in our case we do not
try to reclaim him; we merely hufnf-
late and disgrace him further; we
punish him and drive him out.
GERMANY AND THE TREATY.
San Jose Mercury: ambassador White
is confident that in spite of the OPP
position of the agrarian interests ia
vorable commercial treaty will be ar
ranged between the United States and
Germany. The Emperor and the Ger
man Government favor the adoption
J of a treaty, and our ambassador is of
II the opinion that their wishes will be
carried into effect The present COM
. merc.al relations between the two coun-
tries are satisfactory to neither, and
| are the cause of needless friction and
annoyance.
| POUNDING MEN OF STRAW.
Los Angeles Times: The Democrats,
in bringing up the trust matter and
attempting to make "a political issue Of
II will fail as they failed in 1896. The
American people are too intelligent not
TO understand that the question of
trusts is Of an economic character, and
that there is no politics in it, any more
than there is. in the science of astron-
omy, or chemistry, or the propagation
of grapevines The trusts are made
I'D of individual Democrats, Republic
cans, Populists, Socialists and the PEG
ple of all other shades of political opin-
ion. and the attempt to make 1t appear
that the Republican party is response
BILE for these enormous aggregations Of
capital will Tniserabfy fail. If the. DEM
ocrats are to hope to win before the
people they must win upon political
lines and not attempt to achieve sue
cess by setting up men of straw and
then lambasting them with lightweight
clubs Of rhetoric. Republicans are as
strongly opposed to the menace of the
trust octopus as are the. people of any
other party, and they are just as vital
ly interested in conserving the interests
of the individual citizen as is the most