The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-03-15
A nANLY MESSAGE.
BY Gov. Pengree, of Michigan.

his living. 1t is your especial privilege
and duty to bring the so-called ''mer-
chant princes and captains of indus
try IN this country to realization OF
the fact that our laboring men are some
thing more than tools to be used in the
$enseless chase after wealth.
l would hesitate before making any
recommendations on the subject OF gov
ornamental ownership of railroads, were
mot thoroughly convinced that there is no
other equitable and permanent solution
OF the great questions arising out of rail-
way transportation. This proposition is
Just In principle and the experience OF all
countries where the Threads are oper-
teal NiOr;
1t is no extravaga.. I,, " s.. =
hclpate the time, in the nU.fL,,, "cIt
when the passenger and freight J.E
every train traversing the country, "
the charges for telegraph and telephone
services in every state, and the ownership
Rnd control OF every street car line and
suburban railroad shall be centered in one
great office i'll the city of New York, in
the hands OF one board OF managers, and
possibly in the hands OF one man who
pontrol his fellows
CENTRALIZED OWNERSHIP IN
CREASING.
The same cloud of centralized owner
Ship and control is spreading over the
means OF movement on our interior wa
ters, where floats, and must float for
many years to come, the chief part of
Me American merchant marine. There
seems no longer to be any room for the
Individual steamboat owner The amount
of capital required for the successful con-
fact OF the business is nearly as far be-
yond the resources OF single individual
as that needed for the conduct of rail
poad. Tens OF millions concentrated in
one corporation, and controlled by one
Hand, are devoted to the construction and
management OF an enormous fleet OF gil
gantic vessels, whose owners also seize
ny the same means the wealth OF the
mines that furnish cargoes for them, and
thus render all competition by lesser men
or organizations impossible Whole fleets
are rendered obsolete and lie rotting at
the docks, hundreds of owners are i'm
poverished and men who were formerly
their own masters are reduced either to
poverty or to the condition OF employees.
REMEDY IN GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP
Short OF government ownership and
control OF these quasi pub lic functions, no
means are yet apparent adequate to pre-
vent their rapid concentration in Jew
hands and at one great center OF wealth.
Our federation might be all the more
Complacent could we indulge the hope
that the process would stop at the bust
ness of transportation and intercommuni-
cation. But it has invaded other fields
with the power OF a glacier and the rapid
ity of torrent One by one each OF the
cfo ~,
OF life is falling each into the hands OF
Especial syndicate or trust, or trade COM
1ine, which are but other names for a
group OF men dominated by one man OF
superior force and genius, into whose sin
gle hand is concentrated more power
}han any king possesses, and in COMPARE
son to whom the robber barons OF feudal
ages were pigmleS III their capacity for
extortlon and oppression. The antitrust
laws of the federal government have fall
Ell powerless before them Constitutions
al restrictions have been interpreted by
the courts so as practically to make those
Jaws a dead letter Indeed, no period of
our history has witnessed so rapid and
noxlouS growth of trusts and combines
as the few years since the national con-
GreSs undertook to restrain them.
Nor does the process stop here The
dence and honesty the people depend for
their instruction in public affairs. have
combined, primarily to cheaper the cost
of collecting news, into a gigantic news
trust, called the Associated Press. which,
controlled by few men at Chicago, has
been able to distOrt the truth in many
prominent instances, and to poison with
such distortion the very fountain OF pop
ular information
Even in the small retail trading of our
cities, the process OF concentration is ONLY
too apparent. Our cities no longer pre-
sent the once familiar aspect of miles OF
lAs rrSts, occupied by thousands OF
ss,s respectable merchants, each do
80 aest but satisfactory trade with
h,S ri immediate neighbors, and in
= ~ hch he had been trained BY
sr srience, looking forward to the
49, .ytion OF modest competence for
lis "a and to the transmission to his
'ssgs 81 | honored name and reputation
ealing which was as much a
2afa~ e operty as his houses or his
good here are no longer any mer-
4 ii few of the old sort remain
1ya. fapidly passing away. In their
great corporation is organized.
p'zalc dds or rents d vast pile OF 10
tr rles. In this is gathered the
e. y 10. 20 or 100 merchants in vari
go. aes, and as many small merchants
QiEae from trade ana reappear in
- (. IS The hired clerks floor-wakers
RI erS OF the corporation All
srnA rs great center. scores OF small
,.nEs, once the homes OF honesty and
lCsDme empty and deserted, sad
s&e# gE't to a class once the bulwark of
'fa..cl
iocratic republic cannot survive
20. sis 1earance OF a democratic popula-
fsGs, hen our hundreds OF thousands
,sfea erchants have become the mere
RI. OF vast mercantile corporations
4ve crushed them out of business:
- little shops in which our people
y Slsns h their neighbors. have disap-
st sr@fkAs the ruins before the growth OF
ieN. = brmous establishments in each
topsn n ch absorb all the trade; when all
sFe ' industries have been concen-
=. the hands of few gigantic cor
atlasts; when the yeonlanry OF the
slss We lost their lands to great pro-
.s9s and have sunk to the condition
\ ii aarE and serf; when the artisan may
$50 i n h11t