The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-03-28
GOVERNOR PINGREE ON THE
MENACE OF THE TRSTS.

attacked the EFu5ts III SstSo'Ay
vigorous fashion. His ~utterances have
attracted more than ordinary attention
because they come from a r publican
Partyman who has been repeatedly sue
cessful at the polls despite the opposl
ton of party leaders in his city and
State, and because he criticizas the at.
titude of the Republican national ad-
ministration toward the trusts
Governor Pingree reviews at length
the centraIizing tendencies in Ameri-
can industry, especially IN those
branches relating to transportation
and communication. liberation might
be more complacent, he thinks, If the
same process had Lot invaded other
branches than these with the power
of a glacier and the rapidity of a tor
rent" Oae 'can scarcely make a pur
chase In which the price is not dictated
by a combination over which the mer-
chant you deal with has no control"
Newspapers, combining to cheaper the
cost Of collecting news, become a trust
called the Associated Press, which, un,
der the control of a few men, is able to
distort truth and poison the fountain
Of popular information.
The arguments put forth to defend
the system, as the result Of an inevIta
BILE tendency of general conditions over
which there is no human power Of con
troll, Mr.. Pingree calls ''pretenses" and
'holloW shams":
"While the trusts have neither souls
nor hearts, they r ruled by men, not
angels; men, too, who, in their greed
toward the consumer, and their heart
lessness toward the laborer, are freed
altogether from the personal response
bility which, in spite Of himself, con
trolls and modiies the selfishness Of the
individual manufacturer and EN-
plOyer. .
when the process Of 0 n%centratioD
has worked itself out to completion,
the Law which governs both prices and
wages will assert itself with irresistible
force. The consumer will be charged
the highest price that can be sque,z 9O
out of him, the lRborer will be paid the
lowest wages upon which he can keep
life enough in his body to perform his
daily task. This result has not yet been
quite accomplished, but it is sure a.
that night follows day, as certain a.
the law of human selfishness.
"Hsving accumulated all other agen
cies for the production of wealth, the
possession of the land may easily be
secured"
Mr.. Pingree maintains that the CUES
ton is not alone one of cost Of pro
duction:
1.-THE question of distribution Of
profits is Of vastly more Importance
When a thousand men make ten mil
lions of dollars, the money is scattered
and the wants of a thousand families
are to be gratified, and others are max
ing a profit in catering to their wants;
but when one man accumulates this
amount, there is but one family whose
wants are to be supplied, but one fami
ly to look to for the consumption of
the products Of labor, and the other
999 become laborers themselves"
Another vice of this system is said to
lie in the danger of a new sectional
ism more dangerous than that which
led to the war of the rebellion:
"The insatiate stomach which is de
vouring all wealth is located in the
East. There all the great heads of syn
dicates, no matter where they origi
mated, sooner or later make their
homes. To that point is drawn all the
profits of these enormous o centreted
industries, and little by little the re
msinder of the country is drained of it's
wealth. with no hope of recovering it.
When a trust master has accumulated
his millions he signs for the distinction
of metropolitan life. He builds a pal
ace in New York, and possibly another
in Washington. To the former or
some other center in the East all the
profits of the industries Of the nation
are poured in a colossal and overflow
ing stream, and there is thence doled
out again to the rest of the country
barely enough to pay for raw materials
and keep life in an impoverished labor.
It is only a question of time, and not so
very long a time either, when the East
shall have sopped up, al with a sponge,
the whole surplus wealth Of this ma
ton. What discomfort, what jealousy
may we not then expect to grow in the
hearts of the population of the other
sections possibly to precipitate another
civil war"
Governor Pingree makes an anti