The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-28
THE TRUSTS AND THE END.


Very curious have been the many
expressions on the subject of the
trusts during the past year. A
quarterly dividend of twenty mil
lions of dollars for the Standard OIL
Company, and nearly forty-two mil,
lion dollars profits for one member
of the steel trust-Mr. Carnegie's
end of it-for one year T facts
sufficiently surprising to startle even
the deaf and dumb. Either of these
fortunes continued at this rate would
shortly gather toitself all the wealth
of the United States and shortly
thereafter might command that OF
Europe as well. 1t is a very simple
problem in arithmetic. Nearly all
sorts and conditions of men unite in
declaring the danger which lies In
| the trusts, and the most delightful
suggestions are made regarding the
methods of cUrbing them. Presl-
dent Hadley of Yale suggests that
| Uu0 uOdIS VI UuOSO III OOOS ~ ILL
proper men, who should be socially
ostracized. But this idea is evidently
not fully shared by all college presi-
dents, because in the mail and Elk
press" of February 18th we have
headlines reading this way Brown
Alumna Dine. President Faunce
Makes an Address on the University.
Doctor Schurman Also Speaks He
Pays a High Tribute to Andrew
Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller"
Brains Doctor SchUrman is
quoted as saying, lean make money,
but money cannot make brains. One
of the greatest problems of the day
is presented by the inequality of
wealth. I begrudge no man his
twenty or thirty millions a year
without considering some other
things: Has he increased the wages
of his employees? is he using his
wealth in a way to benefit the peo-
pie? If he is, he is a benetactOr. AL
honor to Andrew Carnegie as long az
he uses his money in such fashion"
If President Hadley had in view
the social ostracism of Mr.. Carnegie
and Mr.. Rockefeller, it is quite APP
parent that it would be difficult to
carry out the scheme without the
cooperation of his distinguished
cOlaborers in the field of education.
Other thinkers, after wrestling
with this difficult problem of what
will become of us if the trusts go on
eating up the wealth OF the country
with such avidity, finally get down
to the conclusion which deserves to
rank with President Hadley's. IF
we have publicity, the problem will
be solved, they say. Yet we have
publicity now. Everybody knows
the actual facts there is no dispute
regarding the conditions nothing
that could be divulged could be more
startling than what we now know
all are agreed, and evidently some of
these gentlemen have in mind that
old fable of the cat and the mice. If
the cat only had a bell on her, they
would be comparatively safe, they
argue. Ting-a-ling, a-ling, a-ling,
and everybody, they imagine, might
dodge out of the way. But the
trouble is that not everybody can
dodge. Pretty much everybody has
been hearing the ting-a-ling for
quite a while now, and with no other
result than that they are compelled
to sit still to be presently gobbled
up. This gobbling process has now
got to a very interesting stage. 1t
is now up to the millionaires.
The other day some of the largest
capitalists who have themselves
been conspicuous in this line of work
heard the ting-a-ling, ling, and look
ing around discovered that the
trust we're bearing down upon
them at least, SO the public press
gave out at the time of the Boston
failures and the squeeze in New
York surface railways.
But the gentlemen who are almost
equally divided between social ostra-
cism and publicity as a remedy for
trusts, are, ostrich-like, simply polk
ing their heads into the sand and
kicking their heels in the air. They
refuse to recognize this scientific
truth, that the trusts are in the
direction of good organization.