The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-06-28
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Bill Gives an Interesting Talk on
Trusts.
-itianta Constitution.

| dUuHtU CORSttutOH.
| David saith "Put not your trust in
! princes" and if he had lived in our day
he would have added nor in million
aires or oil trusts or sugar or whiskey
or tobacco OF even in chewing gum
trusts. "Trust in the Lord and do
good" is the only trust he commended.
L wonder why these combines are called
trusts. I reckon it is because the COM
Diners know it is rascally business.
and they will have to trust one another
to tote fair and divide square, for they
can't enforce it by law. These trusts
seem to be modern invention-a North
American idea-an iden OF our nortli
ern brethren to make the rich richer
and the poor poorer. The consumers
of oil and sugar and such things arc
not complaining Of the price-nor
would they complain If they got them
| for nothing. but these combines arc
founded on selishness and greed. They
! disturb the general welfare, destroy
the equilibrium and put the public i'll
constant peril. They can raise the
price when they wish to and there is
10 competition 10 keep it down. If
competition dares to build up against
them they can destroy it in week or
month. They have no heart or pity
or kind consideration for their en-
ployees, but can reduce their wages or
discharge them at their pleasure. They
defy the law and bribe courts and law
makers. Now, it may be possible that
| the oil trust or the sugar trust sell us
those commodities as cheap OF cheaper
| than if there were no trusts, but we
would rather pay more and have Il free
fight. It is all sided business and
the old maxim that competition is the
life of traden has been virtually de-
strOyed.
We old men have not ceased to la
ment the destruction Of the hundreds
of small Industries that before the war
enriched our State and made our pco-
pie happy and contented. The time
was when there was wagon shop and
a blacksmith shop ut every cross roads
la hatter's shop and two OF three
shoeshops in every village-a lanyard
in every settlement and little mills on
every creek. But big fish have swal-
lowed up the little ones. Their pro-
ducts may be cheaper now, but the
producers have had to move away or go
to planting cotton. Northern capital
takes our iron and timber and hides
and wool and after paying freight both
ways sell back to lis what we had been
making at home. Time was when |
wore shoes that were made in our vii
lage-made from leather that was
Tanned; not far away. Time was when
WAS proud OF the wool hat that Ben
South made-made while I was look
ing on. ] remember that the whipping
post was planted not far from the hat
ter's shop and how ran home on one
occasion to keep from seeing white
man whipped. 81 will meet you at the
hatter's," was timc-honorcd maxim,
but is not now. Time was when once
week rode the little bay mare to
mill three miles away and left my grist
SO as to have race back with some
other boy. And there was country
school on the road and the boys way
laid us because we had dared to cry
"schOnl butter.'' This reminds me to
say in passing received letter the
other day from some Alabama school
boys wanting to know the origin and
meaning, of school butter. My father
was an Old-time school teacher and
said that in his boyhood the expression
was s'schOOl better" and signified that
'.Our school is better than your school,
and it always provoked collision.
Some very hungry boys corrupted it
into "school butter.' But the town
boys never go to mill nowadays; the
mill comes to them. Homemade shoes
and hats are things Of the past-every-
thing comes from the north, and is now
made by trust; and on almost every
thing we use OF consume there is q
duty OF tariff, and we pay our part of
it to keep. mp the government expenses
and pay the pensions and fight the
Filipinos. Talk about the trusts-that
pension trust is the biggest trust of all,
and the most corrupt. How the north
stands it. cannot understand. Over
80. .00O, 10000 hive already gone that
way, and John Browns soul keeps
marching on. Ohio, gets $4,000, 900
this year, and Georgia has to pny her
quota Of the 100000, 900 and gets moth
Ling. Yes, Georgia pays about S0.OO0,-
600 annually through tho operations of
the tariff. bought pocket knife to-
day for so cents that / could have
bought in London for half the money.
just think of it, my brethren, $6,OOO,-
600 in tariff taxes annually to support
a million pensioners, one tenth of whom
are entitled to it under the law and
nine-tenths are frauds. This scanda-
lous trust is backed by the G.. A. Rs, and
they are backed by the republican
party, and that pnrty is backed by the
cohesive power of public plumber. If
this was all that Georgia paid we would
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