The Leon reporter., 1899-12-28
JOHN J. INGALLS, ON TRUSTS

Dividends Paid on Fictitious Capt.
tai by Methods that Make Larceny Re-
spectacle" by John j. ingalls,, in the
New York Sunday Journal: THE trust
issue is so simple and plain and clear
that the wayfaring man, though a fool.
may not err therein. In the deep and
troubled unrest of these times there is
no hostility to wealth honestly ac-
quired and honorably enjoyed, for all
are striving to better their own con-
dition. Neither is there any hatred
of corporations. They are recognized
as the ministers and agents compara-
lively demanded by our new civiliza-
ton. All this empty chatter about the
antiquity of trusts and their benefi-
cence in cheapening production de-
ceive no one. In one breath we are
told that they have existed for many
centuries, and in the next that they
are the result of modern industrial
methods, and have come to stay.
'If manufacturers and producers
combine in partnerships, or corpora
tions, or trusts, to diminish expenses
and make larger gains on narrower
margin, so long as competition is open
and free, no one can justly complain.
The fittest must survive; the weakest
must go to the wall. But the apollo
gists and allies of the trusts confound
the ISSUE The irresistible tendency to
cooperation both of capital and labor
is admitted. 1t is not denied that in
many instances they are benign. or
such the people do not complain though
they are not misled by the amusing
pretense that even these are purely
philanthropic and conducted solely for
tie amelioration of the condition OF
the poor. 1t is only when they con-
tain exclusive control of products de-
signed for the benefit of all. putting
an end to competition, destroying op-
portunity, reducing labor to the condi-
tion of involuntary servitude. making
the public victims of intolerable extor-
tion, that they become the objects of
popular execration.
What the people are determined to
crush in whatever guise, in whatever
ambush, or under whatever name it
may masquerade, is monopoly, and If
any man or any party supposes they
lack either the inclination or the
power. the mistake ultimately will be
apparent and perhaps sooner than it
is anticipated.
ic t.
inc in the United States which is seri-
Gus and may be acute. With a sudden
cold wave would come suffering and
detriment to half the inhabitants of
the temperate zone. Railroads, fac
tories, electric light and power plants,
the palaces of merchants, the kitchens
of laborers, are on short allowances.
Without coal, civilization would be i'm
possible and society would disinte-
CRATE. Billions of tons are stored in
natures treasures. Thousands OF
workmen wait to bring it to the sur
face, but the supply falls far beneath
the demand for this commodity, which
is as necessary to man as water, light
or air.
Scarcity is followed by increase OF
price, though the cost remains the
same. AS the mercury goes down coal
goes up. From Peoria comes the an
nouncement that the Central Illinois
Soft Coal association has decided in
conference to raise the price from seven
cents to fifteen cents, an increase OF
more than 100 per cent This is the
same association that kept Illinois in
a state of civil war nearly all summer
to prevent miners from digging coal, in
order to despoil the people at the ap-
proach Of winter by declaring that the
supply was not equal to the demand.
"A few weeks ago the phillanthro-
pists who have monopolized the pro-
duction of window glass suddenly
closed their works, discharged 10000
laborers, and raised the price so per
cent for the benefit of the poor. In the
past year wire nails have been raised
200 per cent, with but slight increase
in the cost of production. The impu-
dent falsehood that trusts and monop-
olies cheaper products and benefit the
consumer Is disproved by the fact that
the prices of wall paper, rubber goods.
food products, furniture, fence wire,