The Topeka state journal., 1899-12-04
PHASES OF THE TRUST.
Ingalls, Shows Injuries Inflicted
Hanna Defends Combines.
CJohn J. ingalls,, in the New York
Journal

Journal
The trust issue is so simple and
plain, and clear, that the way
faring man. though fool. may
not err therein. In the deep and trou-
bled unrest of these times there is no
hostility to wealth honestly acquired and
hOnOrably enjoyed, for all are striving
to better their own condition. Neither
is there any hatred of corporations.
They are recognized as the ministers
and agents imperatively demanded by
our new civilization. All this empty
chatter about the antiquity of trusts
and their beneficence in cheapening
production deceives no one. In one
breath we are told that they have ex-
listed for many centuries and in the
next that they are the result of modern
industrial methods, and have come to
stay.
If manufacturers and producers COM
bine in partnership, or corporations, or
trusts, to diminish expenses and make
larger gains on a narrower margin, so
long as competition is open and free
no one can justly complain. The fitteSt
must survive; the weakest must go to
the wall. But the apOlOgists and allies
Of the trusts cOnfOund the issue. The
irresistible tendency to cooperation,
both of capital and labor, is admitted.
1t is not denied that in many instances
they are benign. OF such the people do
not complain, though they are not mis-
led by the amusing pretense that even
these are purely philanthrOpic and con-
Quoted solely for the ameliOratiOn of
the condition of the poor It is only
when they obtain exclusive control of
products designed for the benefit of all,
putting an end to competition, destroy
ing opportunity, reducing labor to the
condition of Involuntary servitude,
making the public victims of intoIer-
able eXtortiOn, that they become the
objects of popular eXecratiOn.
What the people are determined to
crush in whatever guise it may am
bush, or under whatever name it may
DQOnOnOfV a
man or any party suppOses they lack
either the inclination or the power, the
mistake ultimately will be apparent,
and perhaps sooner than is anticipated.
At this moment there is a coal ia
mine in the United States, which is SER
iOus and may be acute. With a sud
den cold wave would come suffering
and detriment to half the inhabitants
of the temperate zone. Railroads, fac
tories, electric light and power plants,
the palaces of merchants. the kitchens
Without coal, civilization would be i'm
possible and society would degenerate.
Billions of tons are stored in natures
treasures. Thousands of WOrkmen
wait to bring it to the surface, but the
supply falls far beneath the demand for
this commodity, which is as necessary
to man as water light or air.
Scarcity is followed by increase of
price, though the cost remains the
same. As the mercury goes down,
coal goes up. From Peoria comes the
Illinois
Soft Coal association has decided in
conference to raise the price from
cents to 10 cents, an increase of more
than 100 per cent. This is the same as
sociation that kept Illinois in a state
of civil war nearly all summer to pre-
vent miners from digging coal in or
der to despOn the people at the ap-
prOach of winter by declaring that the
supply was not equal to the demand.
A few weeks ago the philanthropists
who have mOnOpOliZed the production /
of window glass suddenly closed their !
works, discharged 10000 laborers, and
benefit of the poor. In the past year
wire nails have been raised 200 per /
cent with but Slight increase in the cost |
of production. The impudent false
en- products and benefit the consumer |
is disproved by the fact that the prices /
of wall paper, rubber goods, food pro- /
ducts, furniture, fence wire, agricul- |
tural implements, coal, glass and in /
other commodities cOntrOll- |
ed by these monsters have been arbi- |
trarily increased for no cause except to /
pay dividends on fictitious capital by !
that make larceny respectable. I
They create the scarcity which they /
make the excuse for their extOrtiOnS. |
They destroy competition, which, left /
free, would equalize demand and sup /
ply. They deprive the young and poor /
of equality of opportunity, which is the /
of our political system
They are public enemies /
and their existence is reproach to civ |
iHzatiOn.
If any political economist,o or interest
ed shareholder, or party boss, or timid |
opportunist, suppOses that American /
people do not take this issue and do not |
intend to deal with these brigands, he +
is listening with credulity to the !
whispers of fancy
The history of our race has been a
of such contests which have /
rlrN hTrN 7 10 H.
patient, long suffering and slow to /
anger We have made incredible sacri-
fees for liberty regulated by law. We /
know what we want and sooner or
later we always get it We prefer
charters to ultima tums, but when it was
discovered in 1861 that the Constitution
was defective, the people amended it
with the sword.
SHOULD NOT BE POLITICAL
Senator Mark Hanna in the New York
JournaLl
The trust question is not
political one. 1t is a business
1uaSfiO0 and should he treated aS S11ob