The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-03-29
the Peoples party national executive
committee, to succeed w. S. Austin, Of
New Albany.
A Remarkable Article.

A Republican paper prophecies that
armed and bloody revolution will be the
outcome of the present conditions in the
United States
The Minneapolis Times of a recent
date puts forth the following extraordi-
nary article. 1t is enough to make all
thoughtful men pause and think.
You will not find in the editorial col
umns of the New York Sun or the New
York Commercial Advertiser, or in any
prominent paper owned by men in close
touch with capital, outspoken defense OF
the manifold trusts that thoughtful peo-
pie regard as offering the greatest menace
to the country's future. You will dis
cover, however, in those columns care
fully worded and specious arguments in
favor of Capitalization of labor and CAPT
tai and plausible illustrations OF the ben
efts conferred upon mankind by aggrega-
tons of men and money in separate fields
of production. 1t is claimed for the trusts
that they cheaper the cost of articles, ef-
fecting these ends by economy in admin
istration, plentiful command of cash, so
that the raw material can be bought at
the lowest figure and dealt with on the
most scientifs and modern principles 1t
is insisted by these defenders of the oil,
sugar, coal, steel, paper and transporta-
ton kings that in these days of widely
diffused capital they are too wary to over
charge lest others, seeing the extent Of
the gains, rush into theif planes of profit
and oversupply any possible market A
favorite argument is to insist that sugar,
oil, coal, etc, are much cheaper than they
were before the trusts were formed, and
that the constant effort of the combines
is toward increasing demand by cheapen-
ing production OF course the opera
tons of the i1nmutable laws OF economic
development and the steady growth OF
both production and requirement, as man
grows more civilized, is ignored by these
special pleaders, or, if adverted to, the
very working, if not the original enact
ment OF these laws is indirectly attrbut-
ed to the trust formers and pool promot-
ers themselves.
Argue as they may, however, through
the newspapers, on the rostrum, in con-
gress, or-alas, that it should be possible
from the very pulpit, the most earnest
writer or talker of tlferu all knows in his
heart that there is danger in the air
They know that since money has existed
immense contradictions thereof for pur-
poses of personal profit or pleasure have
been inimical to the real interests of the
race, and that disaster has followed fast
upon the heels of greed. If the disaster
affected only those who are responsible
for it, we might possess ourselves in pa
tience and quote the inevitable garnering
of whirlwinds when the scotsman has
sown the storm. But the innocent-the
plain people-nlust suffer in anv hnsiness
avalanche, and strongest -: irnments ere
now have tottered. and fallen when mo-
nopoly came to regard the masses as OF
little worth. 3 81
The very monopolists themselves are
growing fearful. Already they speculate
on what form the dreaded catastrophe
will take To The Times quite recently
came the views sof two men who are in
the very core of the trust business and
who are as fully capable of Judging as to
coming events as any Rockefellers or
Carnegie Of them all..e,One of the gen
tlemen believes that labor riots-extens-
i've, terrible, maybe uncontrollable, will
be the outcome He insists that the
trusts, by centralizing labor, by improv
ing machinery and by lowering wages
will eventually bring the wolf of want to
the threshold of the toiler and that hun
cry men will not be calmed by argument