The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-07-16

'Of all human ills, what at this hour
portends most evil to an otherwise free
and happy people? What power closes
the busy factory, and leaves the machin-
cry to- rust in idleness, the crowded
rooms to hang with cobwebs in solitude.
and the cheerful village near to melt
away; wives and children to suffer hun
ger husbands and fathers to toll for a
pittance in long hours at new and dan
gerous trades in order to live at all, or
else to join the army of tramps recruiting
every day: What poisonous blast
breathes upon struggling enterprise and
withers it, unless it slavishly obeys or.
ders from some distant tyrant behind his
money bags, weaving nets for flies, in his
den, like some bloated venomous creature
of the tropics?
''The revenues Of railroads are swal-
lowed UP, the existence of towns even
has become precarious, the extreme linn
its of hunger, nakedness and depriv x
tom that men can bear and yet continue
to- be available working machines, are
cody calculated, to profit by, if need be.
AT the same time we are told that the
export TRACE of the United States will
be the greatest of the world, because
these new and giant forces have found a
way to reduce the cost of labor below
the pauper wages of foreign lands.
I'VE have been sitting in stolid aston
ishment, while the vast octopus of the
criminal trusts has thrust forth one arm
after another, encircling the entire
country, to feed upon the lives and
hopes, the fortunes and liberties of the
people; aye, to reduce thousand men to
bare garment that one may have his
purple and fine linen weighted with gold
and encrusted with diamonds.
IF one asks why must this factory be
ruined by competitive sales against it,
and that merchant destroyed because he
wishes to buy where he pleases, and fifty
thousand statesmen thrown out of em-
ployment in single week, under the die
tation of a dozen oligarchs, we are told,
You do not understand; it is merely a
matter of social development, the indi-
yidual must suffer for the sake of So
ciety's progress, and thus the cost of
production is lessened, and the cost of
distribution for the general good. You
should study political economy, and
recognize that trusts are natural, indeed
the necessary products of their environ
ment.'
Il deny the whole. Cain slew his broth
er, coming with the fruits of the earth,
but short was his triumph, and he went
forth with the murderer's brand upon
him. Criminal trusts on great scale.
that sweep the land like Athia the Hun,
or those who only plumber and rob a
few, like Jack Sheppard or Hounslow
Heath, are enemies of the human race
and will meet their fate.
''Ihe United States Investor gives the
name of each of 4S7 trusts formed in
this country since january 1st, 1898,
with the capital stock divided into COM
mon and preferred. The vast capitaliza-
ton is about 81, 400 600, ,000O, of which
ST ,625, 100000 is preferred, and fnan-
cial journal states, The preferred stock
covers every dollar of the entire value
Of the property owned by these trusts;
the common stock is composed of gold
BRICKS which are as fine swindle as
ever any street bunco man worked off
upon greenhorn.'
ITO say nothing Of those organized be-
fore or since, what does this mean bni
that the rulers of these combinations
mean to secure dividends for the two-
thirds of these huge billions. by robbing
the workman of his just wages, or ad-
ding to the consumers price. Ii these
are not done, or prove insufficient, then
the purchaser of the stock gets nothing.
and has bought a fraud In the last
analysis, it means to rob outright, or to
swindle
Il stand by a mans right to the prop
erty of his honest earning
Al..
good, do they? Exactly double the price
is the charge now for a ton of Bessemer
steel as compared with a year ago. Have
you priced Il keg Of nails or box OF
window glass of late?
Il am not unmindful that this huge
power commands part OF the press, the
bar, and grieve to say, the pulpit One
immense trust, through its oligarch.
builds a church, and recoups the cost
hundred times, by poisoning the brave
volunteers of the Union, with unfit food;
another contrives the destruction by fire
of an opponents refneries, and then
gives donations to colleges; and SO. I'M
bridled and inconsistent they blaze their
way.
Stand together. brave men of the
ranks. We have this battle to fight. 1t
transcends all party lines, and all doc
trines of eypediency. 1t is to do, or die.
We will not follow the false prophet,
who holds up admiring hands when the
vultnre, gorged with his feast, leaves at
least the bones Of his victim to fertilize
the earth. 1t is true that tigers and
hyenas, rattlesnakes, and even the great
vampire bat of South America, are the
products of their environment, but good
men destroy them wherever they find
them.
The hope Of economic liberty, of free
dom to labor and enjoy, to buy and sell
as you think proper, is in the destruction
OF the monStrous creatures. Sydney
Smith was eloquent when ne described
the taxation of the Englishman from
the swaddling cloth to the silroud from
the cradle TO the coffin. But the tax
these tax-masters would lay upon you, is
not relieved as his was, by the thought
Of the needs of the State and the gem
eral good; ours is the badge of servi-
tude to the loathsolne image of greed,
Of lust Of power and gold.
Come what may, for one, | take my
stand by the man with the hoe AS /
was glad to- serve i'm the ranks as
private by Your side. ! ask no higher
privilege than to fight with you, and to
demand for yon. the rights Of American
Freeman against the dominion Of the
trusts. God being my helper. | am with