Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-02-18

or if atfew Of the old sort remain. they
are rapidly passing away. In their
place q great corporation is organ
1zed, which builds or rents a vast pile
OF ten or twenty stories. In this are
gathered the stocks of ten, twenty or
one hundred ordinary merchants in
various lines, and as many small
merchants disappear from trade and
reaper III time as the hired clerks,
floor walkers and laborers ofthe corpo-
ration.
All around this great center, scores
ofsmall buildings, once the homes of
honesty and thrift, become empty and
deserted, and monuments to a class
once the bulwark of our trade, the
conservative safeguard of our commit
mites. Having no longer stake in
the community or the country, their
very intelligence becomes a menace to
society by rearon Of their degradation
from a position they have no hope Of
recovering.
While the trusts have neither soul
nor hearts, they are ruled by men, not
angels, men, too, who, in their greed
toward thecOnsumer, and their heart
lessness toward the laborer, are freed
altogether from the personal rasp0r-
slbll1ty width, III spite of himself, con-
trO's and 1aoCitie3 the selfshnesa of
the individual manufacturer and efl-
ployer.
No employer whc does buineas in
his own name dare stand before the
community in wbioh he lives aud in
which lis reputation is part Of his
capital for such heartles sne.s toward
labor as the very SINAI. man Wi!
calmly and even cOnscjenti0usly eE-
ercise toward his dependents when
speaking aadactiag as tkerepresenta-
tive Of a corporation toward which
he reguards it as his duty to grind the
last penny for the bene6t OF tic stock
holders.
When the process of concentration
has worked itself out to completion,
the law which governs both prices
and wages will assert itself with ire
sistiblc force. The consumer will be
charged the highest price that can be
squeezed out OF him; the laborer will
be paid the lowest wages upon witch
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perform his 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 selfshness.
There is TO salvation for the con
sumner expect in the free competition;
there is no dignity, no manhood for
the labor except in comparative
independence he derives through the
free competition Of many employers
who seek his services.
When there shall be but one source
fsOn which the consumer can obtain
hissupplies, but one employer to whom
the labOrer con offer his services, both
consumer and lab0rer will be slaves.
When each great staple shall have
passed into the hands of one corpora
ton or trust, those who have that
control will have become masters, not
alone of TIE price to the consumer and
the wages to the laborer, but, what
is almost as appalling, of the price
which they nut pay to such indivi-
ducl producers Of raw materials as
may Still remain in the country, IL
Guiding, possibly, the farmer.
When 4 thousand men make 10, 000,-
600, the money is scattered and the
wants of thousand families are to
be gratiGed, and Others are making
profit in catering to their waits, but
when ore man accumulateS this
amount, there is but one family whose
wants are to be supplied, but ono
family to look TO for the consumption
of the products of labor, and the other
$50 LCcCuc labOrers themselves,
Take, for instance. the money &C
cumulated by John d. Rockefeller.
If the thee hundred millions of profit
that has beeneXtortcd from thepeople
Of this country had been divided
among 20, 900 scattered over the
United States, the effect would not
have been SO disastrous. No one
ofthem would have sufficient cap
ital to control the iron mines and the
lalle-carrying trade to crush out and
DESTROY thoes with small capital in
vested in mines and boats, and to
turn loose thousands of men in search
Of other employment.
CAPITAL becomes more powerful as
it increases in volume, and more dan
gerous as it becomes more powerful.
Aman backed by $500, 100000, i'll
fluenced by ambition greed or avaricc,
holds in his hands the fortunes and
happiness Of tens of thousands OF
people, and he should not be permit
ed to increase this wealth and power
bv continued oXtOrtion, II the power