The Yale expositor., 1899-01-13

l
| discover that you can scarcely make a
| purchase In which the price Is not die
| tated by a combination over which the
merchant you deal with has no control:
| The governor roasts the Associated
| Press as a combination OF the great daily
newspapers to cheaper the cost or col
lecting the news. He bemoans the pass
| ing of the small retail merchants In our
| cities and towns and the advent or the
| gigantic department stores which swal-
| low them up. He then continues:
| We are familiar with the arguments put
| forward TO defend this system on It's sup
| posed merits. We are told that IL is an
| over which there is no human power OF
| control. We are told that the world Is
| growing smaller as the means OF COM
| munication and transportation are be-
| coming more perfect, and the world re-
| Quires less and less number of persons
| TO control affairs as independent men, and
that all the business of the human race
can now be managed more efficiently from
few centers and by few men, leaving
the rest of the race nothing to do but 70
act as hewers of wood and drawers or
water 1t is all in accordance with ire
sistible natural law. a cold-blooded pollt-
zeal economy informs us that IL makes Tor
the cheapening of all the necessaries or
life. The concentration of capital, the
Capitalization of control, in the manufac-
ture and distribution OF each OF the great
staples, saves n thousand elements OF
cost, end enables the manufacturing and
distributing trust to lay the article down
before the consumer at a greatly reduced
thority of every one of these trusts which
has been brought into court, that this
saving of expense enables the trust TO
spar, ga mScn larger port9pn Of its f fSeno
pretenses are hollow shams. While the
trusts have neither souls nor hearts, they
are are ruled oy men, not angels; men, 100
and their heartlessness toward the lab
orer, are freed altogether from the per-
sonal responsibility which. in spite OF
a n mi
ness of the individual manufacturer and
employer. No employer who does busi-
ness In his own name, dare stand before
which his reputation is part OF his capital,
for such heartlessness toward labor as the
very small man will calmly and even con-
sc!entiously exercise toward his depend
ents when speaking and acting as the rep
resentatiVe of corporation toward which
he regards II as his duty to grind the last
penny for the benefit of the stockholders.
The humanity OF the manager OF a corp
grafton is lost in the mere machine which
he becomes as part OF the greater ma
chine for which he acts. When the pro-
cess OF concentration has worked itself
out to completion, the law which governs
both prices and wages will assert itself
be charged the highest price that can be
squeezed out OF him; the laborer will be
paid the lowest wages upon which he can
keep life enough in his body to perform
bis daily task This result has not yet
been quite accomplished. but It is sure as
that night follows day. as certain as the
law OF human selflshness.
There is no salvation for the consumer
except in free competition: there Is no
dignity. no manhood for the laborer ex-
cept in the comparative independence he
derives through the free competition OF
many employers who seek his services.
A Revolution Not Improbable.
The governor solemniy declares that the
continuance Of this state of affairs will
eventually bring US TO the point where
there Will be one great monopoly which
will control the supplies of the nation; the
consumer and laborer will become slaves;
the soil of the country will be seized and
new landed aIistocracy Will have arisen,
France and England will be duplicated
points out the $4,000. 900 aecdSulatsd
OF what monopoly is doing. The
governor also sees another danger
from this great evil which attracts but
little attention, but which may well eX-
cite the alarm Of every lover of his coun-
try. The Capitalization of ownership and
control threatens a new sectionalism
the war of the rebellion. The insatiate
stomach which is devouring all wealth is
located in the East. There all the great
they originated, sooner or later make
tfeir homes. To that point Is drawn all
the PROFITS of these enormous concentrat-
ed industries, and little by little the re-
wealth, with no hope of recovering Il. To
the East all the profits of the Industries
of the nation are poured in a colossal and
overfiowing stream, and there is thence
doled out again to the rest of the country
barely enough to pay for raw materials
and keep life in an impoverished labor. 1t
Is only a question OF time. and not so very
long time either, when the East shall
have sopped up, as with a sponge, the
What discomfort, what jealousy may we
not then expect 70 grow in the hearts OF
the population of the other sections. to
possibly precipitate another civil war.
Our readers, our press and our legisla-
tors have not yet fully realized what this
degrading process means to the future OF
a republic founded upon democratic prln
ciples, A democratic republic cannot sur
vive the disappearance of democratic
population. When our hundreds of thou
sands OF free merchants have become the
mere hireupgs OF vast mercantile corpora
tions which have crushed them out OF
business; when the little shops, in which
our people trade with their neighbors,
growth of a few enormous establishments
In each town which absorb all the trade;
when all the great Industries have been
concentrated in tho hands Of q few gigan-
tic corporations when the yoemanry OF
the farms have lost their lands to great
proprietors. and have sunk to. the condi-
ton of the tenant and the .serf; when the
artisan may offer his services to but one
great corporate employer In Ills own trade
and shall be utterly at the mercy Of thai
dependent voter. the free man, to govern
1t in peace, to defend II in war? There
Will no longer be men in this country;
there Will be only. on one side corpora
tion managers, and on the other q mass
of servile and dependent slaves.
There must be remedies. The law was
made for the people,. not the people for
the law. We have done greater things,
holder things, before. Other peoples have
accomplished reforms which seemed quite
as difficult 20 the lawyers and the courts.
II technical construction of the constitu-
ton stands In our way, constitution can
be amended; or, a more summary method
may be adopted by electing and appoint
ing judges who will construe these instru-
ments according TO the eternal law of JUS
tice and humanity. One of the great polit-
ical parties of this coutry has already
made this latter suggestion in national
platform, only 20 have IL denounced by |
the promoters CT the peoples degradation |
as anarchy and revolution. There may be |
those who will so denounce ne for init |
mating that there is no divinity-hedging |
about judges which makes them superior |
TO their masters. the sovereign people. / |
am content to suffer this penalty, IL 1 |
must, but no penalty shall restrain mo |
from raising my voice on all proOer occa-
slons even against courts which foster |
what believe TO be q danger to the free |
dom and welfare of the people.
LEGISLATION must address itself 20 this |
supreme duty Of the hour and find way /