The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-07-02
Trusts are a Northern Idea to
Make the Rich Richer.
PRICES PUT UP AND DOWN
If COMPETITION DARES TIC
ARISE THEY CAN CRUSH IT.
THE PENSION TRUST AND ITS COST
If the War Party Would Take the Negroes t
the Philippine Islands itWould be
a Good OeIiverance.

Good OeIiverance.
David saith, Put not your trust an
princes and if he had lived in our day
de would have added nor in mdlhonaires
or oil trusts or sugar or whlskey or to-
bacco or even in chewing gum trusts.
thrust i'm the Lord and do good is the
only trust he commended l wonder why
these combines are called trusts? l reck-
ON because the cOmbiners know it is a
rascally business and they will have to
trust one another to tote fair and divide
square, for they can't enforce 1t by law.
These trusts seem to be a modern lnyen-
tion-a North American idea-an idea of
our Northern brethren to make the rich
richer and the poor poorer. line consllln-
ers of oil and sugar and such things are
not complaining of the price-nor would
they complain if they got them for moth
ing, but these combines are founded on
selfsllness and greed. They disturb the
general welfare, destroy the equilibrium
and put the public in constant peril.
They can raise the price when they wish
to and there is no competition to keep it
down. If competition dares to build up
against them they cam destroy it III a
week or month. They have no heart
or pity or kind consideration for their
employees, but can reduce their wages
or discharge them at their pleasure.
They defy the law and bride courts and
lawmakers. Now, it may be possible
that the oil trust or the sugar trust sell
us those commodities as cheap or cheaper
than if there were no trusts, but we
would rather pay more and have free
fight 1t is all one-sided business and
the old maxim that competition us the
life Of trade has been virtually de-
stroyed.
We old men have not ceased to lament
the destruction of the hundreds of small
industries that before the war enriched
our State and made the people happy
and contented The time was when there
was a wagon shop and a blacksmith shop.
at every cross roadS--a hatter'S shop
and two or three shOeshops in every vii
lage-a lanyard ON every creek. But big
fish have swallowed up the little ones.
Their prouucts may be cheaper, NOW.
but the producers have had TO move
away or 20 to Planting cotton. Northern
| capital takes our iron and timber anu
hides and wool and after paying freight
both ways sells back to MS what we mad
been making a home. Time was when
wore shoes that We're made i'm our VII
lage-mslde from leather that was tan
ned not far away. Time was when
| was proud of the wool hat that Ben
South made-inade while l was docking
on. remember that the whipping-post,
was planted not far from the matters
shop and how | ran home on the Occa-
sion to keep from seeing white man
whipped. Il will meet you at the hat
ter's,'' was time-honored 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 a race back, with some other boy.
Ana th.re was "a country school ON the
road and the boys waylaid us because we
had dared to cry "sGhOol butter" This
reminds me to say in passing received
letter the other day from some Ala
bama school boys wanting to- know the
| origin and meaning of school butter.
NV father was AN Old-time school teach
er and said that in his boyhood the ex-
preston was ''ischool better" and signi-
| fled that "our school is better than your
school," and it always provoked a COLI
sion. 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-everythi
comes from the north, and lis now made
| by trust; and ON almost everything we
| use or consume there is duty or tariff.
and we pay our part of it to keep the
| government expenses and pay the pen
si0ns and fight the FihpinOs. Talk
about The tr,lsts-that pension trust is
~, ~. al tha
corrupt. How the North stands it l can
not understands Over $1,000, OO0,OOO
have already gone that way. and John
Browns soul keeps marching OH. Ohio
gets $13,OO0,O0O this year, and Georgia
has to pay her quota of the G0,OO0,O00
and get nothing. Yes, Georgia pays
about $6,OOO,OOO annually through the
operations of the tariff. l bought IA peck
ct knife to-day for 80 cents that | could
have bought in London for half the
! lponey. Just think of it, my brethren,
So 00O. 600 in tariff taxes annually to s,ip-
| port Il m,.lion pensioners, one-tenth OF
whom are entitled to it under the law
and .iB;ne- tentils are frauds. This scan-
dalOus trust is backed by the q. A. Rs.
and they are backed by the Republican
party, and that party is backed by the
cohesive power of pub1ic plumber. If
this was All that Georgia paid we would
be happy, but our State 1ias to pay her
part of $500. O00, 900 more than it takes
to run the national machine. Altogether
we pay not less than S4OO0O,00O annu
ally for the privilege of remaining in the
Union-I1ow is that for Oppressiony i
tell yo,l, it takes a vast amount of pa
triDtism for a Southern man to love his
government and fight for it. The only
way to be patriot is to Shut ones eyes
and go it blind. 1t would not do to think
about our grievances. for they inter
fere with OH digestion.
Besides all these troubles there is a
long, dry drought upon us, and our gar
dens have dried mp and money has given
out, and the cook lis sick, and | have to
, hunt UP kindling wood and fire up the
stove before sun-up and go to- market.
and there is a picnic ON hand tomorrow
and one Of the little grandchildren got
hurt on the jogging board 1t tore the
flesh from her ankle, and almost cried;