Douglas Island news., 1899-07-26
TELEPHONE Io5.
WEDNESDAY. JULY 26, 1899.
DOWN WITH THE TRUSTS"

DOWN WITH HE IRUS IS."
 The two great parties of this country will no doubt contain strong declara- tions against the trusts that have been so numerousIy formed during the past few years, and this great cry will, to a great extent, be simply sham issue with which to catch the votes of the uninformed and credulouS voters.
 In a few cases, the trusts are an evil, positive detriment to the welfare of the people, but in many cases they are, and will prove to be, benefit.
 4 number of manufacturers engage in the production of the same class of goods, and in a short time the rivalry and competition between them becomes so strong that they are running or manufacturing at a loss. This con dition of affairs continues for time and the manufacturer either closes down. enters into trust combination or becomes a bankrupt. Either one of the two former is a much greater injury to the people than to enter into com bination and raise the price of the ar ticIes manufactured so as to continue the production at profit and give labor to those who would otherwise be thrown out of employment.
 We are aware of the fact that to champion the cause of the trusts is unpopular and the people are in a frame of mind to accept and approve any deuuuciatiou of the trusts even if they are a benefit. but the fact remains, and always will, that if you want pros pcrity you must extend 1t to the mauu- facturer as well as the labOrer, the mer- chant, the farmer or the professional man. You may think it economy to save a few cents on an article that Is not produced at profit, but it isn't. Take the Standard Oil combination for illustration. 1t IS not, strictly speak ing, a trust, but so nearly SO that we may use it to demonstrate our argu- ment. Before the Standard Oil people engaged in business, oil was higher and of an inferior grade. It was of a vel Jewish color and unsafe. The Standard Oil manufacturers N0t only reduced the price, but their ctl Is the very best, and the people have not been the loser by reason of the Standard Oil stock holders becoming rich.
 If there is any article manufactured in the United States at a loss, or We will say at such reduced rate that fair dividends cannot be paid to the stockholders on the investment of their capital, the people ought to be willing to pay enough more to continue the manufacturer in business, and this re- suit can, in our opinion, only be ob- tained by the organization of a trust.
 Live and let live" is very good motto. The formation of many of the trusts, perhaps not all, is for the pur- pose of placing the articles manufac- tured on a dividend paying basis, that competition has brought below that condition. Our ideas upon this sub ject may not be popular but they are correct. They are within the princi- ples of the golden rule, whose author never went off wrong on any of the problems of life.
 If you can devise laws that will re- form the bad features of the bad trusts, it should be done, but to make politi- cal question out of trusts in general and thereby encourage demagogUery and cause the election of demagogues to office, is by far a greater evil than to let the trusts entirely alone. One of the great war cries of the Democratic party will be, "Down with the trusts" and the Republicans will no doubt adopt plank of like import in their platform, when in fact neither will ex- pect to fulfill it's promise to the people in case of success.
 A large number of insurance com panies were recently excluded from the state of Missouri because they belonged to trust or com mbination that fixed the rate of insurance for all. Without this uniform rate, the business of the companies competing for business would 10 doubt be demoralized and