The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-05-11
Every Small Business Man Being Crush
ed bg the Trust.


ed BY the Trust.
In five years from today there viii
not be an Independent business man IN
any large or in any considerable place
in the United States Every business
will be in the hands Of a strong consol-
idated organization which is called q
trust IL will destroy all opportunity
for independent energy or competition,
OF for that rise Of young men which we
have boasted. has been one Of the great
opportunities Of this country "-Chaun-
cey NJ. Depew.
Thus spoke the former manager Of
Vanderbilt's railroads, who has recent
ly been elected to the Senate from New
York He is a distinguished man
whose learnings interests and sympath-
les are on the side of wealth. and his
prophecy cannot be said to be based
upon the fears Of the uniformed, the
"calamity howlers or the demagogUes.
Ordinarily when a public man or a
newspaper gives expression to the senti-
ment so clearly stated by Mr.. Depew,
the hirelings Of trusts make no answer
except to say that he is demagogue try
ing to get elected by pandering to pref
udice. We quote from Mr.. Depew be-
cause he Is known TO be rich himself
and always looked to the rich and pow
erful for preferment, and not because
he has said anything new. Others less
famous, have pointed out this phase Of
the trust as strongly as Mr.. Depew.
Referring in the same interview to
1.-THE men Of small capital, the firms Of
little means, composed generally Of
young men whose friends. believing IN
their energy, enterprise and honesty.
have advanced money that they may 60
into business" s"-referring to these young
men. Mr. Depew says:
Just see the frightful competition
they have TO contend with. This great
concern with its enormous capital goes
into a town, and, in order 10 get the
business to crush out its weaker com
petitor, will undersell him, and because
Of its vast business is enabled to under
sell him lie cannot help himself, every
one Of these small men has to go to the
wall. 1t is mere question Of time
when this big firm will absorb and ruin
them all. "
To the same effect speaks the Repub-
lican Governor Of Michigan, Pingree,
in an official paper to the Michigan
Legislatrre-he says:.-
1T il no extravaganza OF despair to
anticipate the time in the not far dis
tant future when the passenger and
freight rates on every train trayersiDR
the country. when the charges for tele-
graph and telephone service in every
State, and the ownership and control
Of every street car line and suburban
railroad shall be centered in one great
office in the city Of New York. in the
hands Of one board of managers, and
possibly in the hands Of one man who
may have the genius and power TO con-
troll his fellows.
1T has invaded other fields with the
power of glacier and the rapidity OF a
torrent One by one each of the great
staples which form the necessaries Of
life is falling in the hands Of its special
syndicate or trust or trade combine,
which are but other names for q group
of men dominated by one man Of superior
force and genius, into whose single hand
is concentrated more power than any
king possesses and in comparison TO
whom the barons of feudal ages were
pigmies in their capacity for extortion
and oppression.
Even in the small retail trading in
our cities the process Of concentration
Is only too apparent. Our cities no
longer present the once familiar aspect
of miles of busy streets, occupied by
thousands of small but respectable mer-
chants, each doing q modest but satis-
factory trade with his more immediate
neighbors and in q line to which he
had been trained by long experience,
looking forward to the accumulation Of
a modest competence for his old age
and to the transmission to his heirs Of
an honored name and reputation for fair
dealing. which was much of family
property as his house or his goods.
"When the process Of concentration
has worked itself on to completion the
law which governs both prices and
wages will assert itself with irresist-
able 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 which
he can keep life enough in his body to
perform his daily task. -
DIR. Oady's Condition Powders, are