The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-29
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
Do Not. One of These Indicate the
| .'',s'-.iConlfng of the other.

Do Not One of These Indicate the
1.'<iiComfnS OF the other.
To the Editor of, the Globe: e7a.: ea.
In the Clio e Of today's date there
appears an editorial headed 1.-THE Wastes
of Distribution. and it has suggested to
me the following speculation and inquiry:
There can be but little il any question
that the present tendency toward concen-
trating the manufacture and distribution
of goods into the hands of a few indi-
viduals-the trusts and the systematizing
Of labor-throws many men out of en-
ployment. The tobacco trust alone has
tVrown hundreds of travelling men out
OF employment. 1t is said that inven-
lions and improvements in labor saving
machinery furnish work to more people
than it deprives of it. This proposition
is open to doubt; out there can be no I'M
certainty about the effect of mere concen-
tration. 1t throws vast numbers of peo-
pie out of the employment they have
habitually followed and provides none in
it's place.
1t should be a subject of the most vi
tally interesting inquiry to every intellf-
gent working man as to what they are
to find to take the place of these lost
opportunities for work, and as to how
changed conditions The supply stores,
too, and the department stores, are all
the time contracting the business Of the
mass of retail stores. and there Is no
way of preventing the tendency. 1t is
an outgrowth Of advancing civilization
Business men, by reason Of increased
knowledge, rapid transit and quick COM
munication, have found out what can be
accomplished by concentration and sys-
tenn, and they are bound to use all their
advantages. The formation of trusts can
be stopped, and those already formed
can be dissolved by process of law, but
no law can reach a syndicate that buys
and actually owns all the plant of par
ticular industry.
Then what follows for hundreds of thou
sands of laborerS, travelling men and non
producers of various kinds who now do
have work? The young unmarried man
who Is saving his money can prepare
himself and eventually enter, in a degree,
at least, the ranks Of the capitals! &c cl -,
but the trouble Is that these young men
do not save their money. Nine out of
ten spend 1t as fast as earned, while the
men of advanced age, with families to
support, earn, as a rule, only enough to
enable them to live from hand to mouth
and canont save Non-prodUcers, and la
boring men Also do not interest them
selves in this question half as much as
they should, and it remains to be seen
whether an all-wise Providence will pro-
vide opportunities that will enable him TO
meet the changed situation. Whether
American enterprise and self-reliance will
find the opportunities, whether hun
dreds of thousands of people are to be
reduced to a state Of beggary one thing
Is certain, namely, that the changes pro-
duced by concentration are radical and
fundamental, and cannot be ignored, and
that in them the American Iaboring man.
as we'll as the non-producer. has sit
uation to confront such as never before
existed in this country or, prehaps, any
other. "A. r. Case
Olivia, Mimi, May g.