The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1900-07-18

casicnally ! BET on little jerk-water
roa6 that is not in the combination,
ane want to double my accident poll
cies and be satisfied with a lS-mile-an-
hour gait ana console myself with the
icea that can ride all day for a dol
lar; but when set on the Pennsyl-
yania or Vanderbilt system Of roads
with their schedules forty miles an
hour, vestibule trains, with parlor cars,
sleeping cars, dining cars, l have a
hotel ON wheels Carrying me towards
my destination. and all this for about
two cents mile Give me the road
that is in the combine to carry me
where l am going.
Public sentiment is the safeguard
which is thrown around all aggrega-
tions Of wealth and all combinations OF
interest The Standard OIL, the rail-
road combinations. the Sugar Trust are
as sensitive to public sentiment as the
snow-bank TO the rays Of the sun.
Trusts and combines win not hurt the
public, but stockholders and bonds
holders may suffer later on, when those
bulky Institutions become unwieldy
and fall with their own weight. Fifty
thousand men in the United States. per-
haps not more, are interested in the
great trusts OF the country. Those So
600 men know that there are 5e,OO0.OOO
Of other people in America. and their
wisdom teaches them where boundary
lines are, over which they cannot so
without peril to themselves and dlsas-
ter to their business. No combination
now says damn the public" but they
have their weathereOcks out on every
prominent cupola watching how the
Wind blows.
OF course, political capital can be
made out OF such formations Of wealth
and social orders may raise the black
flag to fight them; but am a thousand
times more afraid Of demagogues and
politicians than am afraid of trusts
and combines. Good government-which
means not only the well-belng of the
citizen. but the overthrow Of all that
win hurt the citizen-depends upon
good men in Office. and We had better
pay less attention to what We call
trusts and combinations and more at
tention to those whom We elect to Of
flee in the municipal. state and nation
al governments. Mr.. Stead. in his
book IF Christ Came to Chicago"
speaks OF the big Four Of Chicago"
and says Of them that their methods
are clean and their transactions are
honest. but that in the road Of their
success lies the blood and bones Of the
victims over whom they have run to |
success The successful man or COM
bination means the downfall OF other
men and other combinations. One
preacher is preaching to 5000. twenty
preachers around him consider sew
enty-five a full house. and hundred
> perfect jam; one physician making
$4,000 a year. and forty little doctors
in the neighborhOod not making their
grub. A Wanamaker selling s5O.0O0,-
oOO year means many little merchants
for clerkship in his store. It
IS the survival Of the fittest, it may be.
When God made this world He made
towering into the clouds and
valleys below the level Of the sea; he
made lakes and oceans; He spread out
the prairies Of the West and piled up
around the little valleys
along the ranges Of the Rockies and
the Alleghenies. In the oceans waters
We find whales and some very small
fishes. and when the whales come along
the little fish have to hide out. have
over this country from ocean
to ocean. and from Montreal to Gal
weston. annually for twenty years. I
have watched the progress Of events
and the professions as they marched.
I have yet to know Of a single Instance
where combines and trusts hurt the
masses or permanently raised the price
If any product. am thousand times