The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-10-31
THE THINKERS.
AND PARTY PLATFORMS

O0B vi OOSAVGO 70 SAN" ~
grain of wheat and about a peck of
chaf with this grain. The one sensible
thing we have seen in the platform is
this:
EVERY trust rests uoon a corpora
ton, and every corporation is a Great
ure of law"
The suggestion is then made that the
proper method of dealing with trusts
is to limit the powers Of corporations
and hold them to the strict construc
ton of the law. This is the way out
and the only way out with eafeTy to
the public. It is perfectly silly for
politicians to get together and adopt a
platform simply denouncing trusts or
proposing that if they become danger
GUS they should be destroyed altogeth.
er. The modern trust is not a corpora
ton holding in trusi the stocks of other
corporations engaged in the same line
of business. closing up part OF them,
and controlling the output of the rest.
This is the old form of trust which has
t9en declared illegal. In the modern
form, the trust is simply a gigantic
corporation owning the plants them
selves and has Eeen declared to be
legal.
These large corporations are essential
to the business Of the country and to
destroy them, as some of poll
ticians toolishly and ignorantly pro-
pose to do, would Eo to cripple the in
dustries Of the country and turn back
the dial which marks the progress of
industrial development twenty-five
years. Either we must tax the fran
chise, apart from the property, of all
corporations and thus make them pay
the equivalent for immortality and the
freedom OF the individual from liabiI-
ity for corporate debts, or else we
must bee ONE socialists and the people
themselves as a people must own these
corporations.
AS we see it there is no other solu-
ton of the trust problem. The social
istic wave that is likely to pses over
the country with all it's risks to prop
erty, to free institutions, and to life
itself, has it's ource and power not 10
these who preach socialism but in the
greed and avarica which leads to the
formation Of trusts and to the ignor
ance and coWerdice of the politicians
who think the problem can be solved
by mere denunciation. We must either
limit the powers of corporations and
thus make them the servants instead
Of the masters of the common people
or else the people must become the
trust and own the great enterprises
which furnish manufactured products,
transportation, and distribution. Should
we go or another q lsrter of a century
as We are doing n have been doing,
the corporations will wipe out the in
dividuel in all lines Of manufactures
and distribution as it has already
wiped out the individual in transporta-
ton. Tne corporations will then by
combinations of interests have the
laborer and the consumer entirely at
their mercy and this means revolution,
financial, social, and political.
There are lines in which public own
ership is possible. It is poesio @ for
the city to VI the street rail ways, the
gas factories, the lighting plants, as it
is possible for the nation to own the
p~ostofice, the telegraph, and possibly
even railroads, but to talk about the
public owning factories and mines is to
talk nonsense, and yet if things go on
as they have been doing and political
conventions are, as no ", apparently in
the hands Of men who have never
given any study to the question, but
are simply passing resolutions to catch
votes and pander to interests or pre-
JUDGES, eve this may be seriously at
tempted. The plain, simple, and direct
way is to tax the franchises of corpor-
atoms as an equivalent for immortality
and freedom from liability for corpor
ate Indebtedness and to compel pub
licity as in the case of national banks;
in short, for the state and national |
governments to apply to all corpor
atoms for pecuniary profit the same
principle that has been applied so sue
cessfulIy for thirty years to national
banks. This requires no amendment
to the consEitu ion of the states or the
United States. 1t is simple justice. 1t
means safety to the public. Il means
a lowering of taxation, both state and
national. 1t means prosperity. Il
means practical cooperation, for a
great industry managed in this way
will ho ohIo RI diaoOso ~ oil ita stooH. /