Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1899-09-20
THE OTHER SIDE.


prominent citizens of Chicago, had the
following communication in yester-
days Chicago Tribune:
Twas down in the country last week
and an old farmer asked me this ques-
ton: How many of the professors
and orators who were speaking against
trusts had ever built up any industry
that gave lab )r employment and pro-
NOTED interests which made this great
nation2n
He said he had always noticed when
railr o Ids and manufacturers were SUI
eessful the farmer always got good
price for his cattle and hogs and gei :
eral farm products. 1T hundre l
manufacturers ere in hot competi-
ton, the only one who succeeded
would be the one who WAS most able
to reduce wages to the 10 vest point.
AS long as the country is prosperous
it would take a great many profess ors
to convince the farmers that organic d
capital and labor were an evil.
There is deal of good horse sense
in what that farmer said. There are
possibilities of evil in trusts and what
the outcome of the present trust boom
may be no one can foretell. But there
Is nothing to be gained by a
blind and unreasoning stampede. Ii
IS undoubtedly fact that large pro
portion of the men who are at the
head of these combinations, called
trusts. are the same men who have
built up the large industries OF this
country and who have given and are
still giving the bulk of lucrative en-
ployment to its laboring element. Ii
is no do bit true, to-, as the farmer
suggests, that the merciless competI-
ton between manufacturers had
the tendency to cut down the
price of l.bor and that com
bination will have the tendency
to hold the price up. To accomplish
this end is claimed TO be the prime
object of these industrial combinations
and up to the present date there has GER
tainly nothing occurred to disprove
their claim. That the promoters them
selves expect to make money goes
without saying. They are not posing
as mere philanthropists.
Richmond has furnish d st liking
illustration of the fact cited by the
farmer that the organizers of these
combinations are the men who have
built up the industries of this country
and made this a great nation in which
labor receives the hi hest reward in
the world. We refer to Daniel G..
Reid who is at the head of the great
tin plate industry which gives employ
ment to many thousands of men at
wages ranging from So to $l4 per day.
A comparatively few years ago the
money that is now being paid by this
combination to American workmen
went into the pockets of employees in
foreign factories and money was drawn
ont of this country besides |
to pay for imported tin plate Now
the situation is reversed. This great |
Industry has been enabled not only to
give lucrative employment to an army
of American woi king men but also to
force its goods into European markets
in competition with their own produe
ton. Mr.. Reid who is at the head
of this so called trust is a fair sample
of the men who are leading spirits in
all of them. He has made fortune
and is richly entitled to it.
In making it he has distributed many
fortunes among working men and has
maintained hundreds of happy homes.
No doubt he has accomplished far
more good for this country than all the |
antitrust sereaners in the Chicago
conference together. And he has not
done this without taking chances and
sustaining losses that would have DIS |
couraged small-bore fnanciers. He
sunk thousands of dollars right here in |
Richmond trying to promote local in
dustries while eurbstone bankers who |
had more money but less public spirit
and philanthropy stood by, with their
hands on their pocket books, and |
croaked. OF the money he has since
made he has given more to Richmond |
charities and philanthropie enterprises
than all the local eroskers together.
the fact that he is no
longer citizen of our town.
Such facts it would be well for he .
public TO consider at this time when it |
has become the popular fad to howl .
Unfortunately at what are called .
trusts. SHOW me your company and
i'll tell you who you are" is an old
and wise adage. In estimating the
probable injury the country may sus-
tain from the Sc industrial combinations
il is bat reasonable aud sensible to take
into account the character of the men
at the head of them.
The Dreyfus incident is about
closed. After his pardon Drevfus will
no doubt retire to England where