The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-09

ing from trusts, from vast coHDInd-
tons, from the tendency to ignore the
man and to magnify money. There
is real danger that the individual will
be swallowed in the gigantic combina-
ton maelstrom. Recently the cele-
brated English writer on philosophy
and economies, Herbert Spencer, wrote
this to the author of the recent biog-
raphy of the great Adam Smith, one
of the earliest and foremost of politi-
cal omists:
Especially am 1 glad to see that
you have insisted upon the individual
istic character of his teaching. It is
we'll that his authority on the side of
i~ndividualism should be put forward in
these days of rampant socialism, hen
the great mass of Legislative measures
extend public agency, and restrict pri-
vate agency, the advocates of such
measures being blind to the fact that
by small steps they are bringing about
a state in which the citizen will have
lost all freedom"
There is ~profundity in that, if you
find it's meaning. Recently The Mes
senger laid before it's readers some very
suggestive extracts from The New
York Journal of Commerce. 1t is time
to see what the trend Of socialism is
how it Injuries the poo man when il
cripples the rich man. Recently we
wrote on this line. 1t is we'll under
stood that one of the dangers arising
from trusts is to promote the power Of
socialism. That which commands all
trade may in the end foster that spirit
t1of &C. Ioc+;Jo - -xo..II
tear down. We take generally but little
stock in any thing Harper's Weekly
may say. For forty a it has been
the enemy Of the south. It recently
had some reflections that impresses us as
timely and neal the mark Of truth. It
said:
ut seems as if all modern life, ex-
cept the law, had changed itself to har-
mOnize with the new power; but if the
law does not assume the responsible
ties which are thTust upon it by new
conditions, there is nothing so likely
to promote the ultimate triumph of So
cialism as the huge trusts, which are
commanding every avenue of trade-in-
Guiding the labor trust, which denies
to the individual the right to earn his
living except as a member of a union
and in obedience to it's laws. It is evil
dent that we cannot depend upon the
trusts themselves to be continent.
The community is likely to de-
mand that all shall share alike in the
benefits Of capital, before the individual
can learn that the tyranny of the COM
munity will be more oppressive even
than the tyranny of the trusts them
selves. What we need more than laws
which restrict and prevent the forma-
ton of trusts are laws and courts that
will hold them to a high standard of
honor; that will prevent misuse Of their
power, and that will especially prevent
their oppression of individual competi-
tors"
The rapid growth of trusts. every
day seeing perhaps a half dozen new
ones, must arrest the attention of all
intelligent men not Gin the swim" and
not carried away by the enthusiasm
and results of new schemes for enrich
men The Weekly says:
cit behooves the state to change it's
laws to meet the new social and ecor~
mic conditions, to the end tina or
ganized capital shall be restrained by
the government instead of constrain-
ing it's legal organizer. The most seri-
Gus threat at present of socialism lies
in the possible and sometimes actual
tyranny of trusts"
Let it be remembered always that the
great friend, patron n restrainer Of
trusts is the old, u%nfaithful and vicious
republican party, including the McKin-
ley crowd. 1t is claimed that the re-
publican is the enemy of trusts. That
is so untrue that all who know any
thing of politics must know that but
for the republican party probably not
one-half of the trusts would ever have
been formed. The party that fosters
| cursed civilization is not too good tc
| foster the giant trusts. This it has
/ done and there is no present prospect
that the trusts will be less in number
but the probability is that they viii
absorb every thing. The st. Louis Re.
public, an able, staunch democratic pa,
per, says of these aggravated and "a
pacious curses of the people:
These combines have grown so rap
idly n are S % powerful under the fos
tering care of the republican party tina
roofing them out by legal process
even supposing adequate avs for thei
repression could be passed by ever,
state in the union and could have hon
est and fearless officials to enfoTc
them-will be a work requiring tireles
labor n patience. Their power am
opportunity to use the corrupting in
fiuence of wealth in r%etarding tn
the wheels of justice and bribing it
instruments may long delay the re
forming of this evil which threaten
the commercial and political freedor
Of the country"
If there is any relief ahead for tn
people it cannot be seen. It locks nov
that with the change in the form o
our government-already much alter
ed-there will come a complete chang
in business from the consolidation Q
capital hat will amount to a CON
plete revolution" as The New Yorl
Journal of Commerce contends.