The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1900-05-11
MADETOMISLEADTH DTHEPEOPLE
MonopoIies Have Been Recos-
nized As a Curse in All Ages.
TRUSTS ARE A r1ENACE
To the Public Welfare, and Should
Be Suppressed.

There is no evil in America, today,
that so threatens the public welfare,
and that will eventually do so much to
overthrow our liberties, as that OF
Trusts.
Notwithstanding this fact, the two
great parties deceive the people with
promises, and with perfunctory denun-
Citations of the evil, without making
any honest endeavor to suppress it.
The people recognize the existence of
the evil, but do not realize its enormity,
do not realize that it is crippling their
abilities, robbing them of opportunities
to provide for themselves, destroying
their opportunities for work, making
them the unwilling servants of capital,
and robbing them of the best of their
earnings, because the burden is one
that comes upon them Indirectly; and
they do not realize their losses nor the
cause of them.
Newspapers sell their columns for so
much per line, and publish articles pre-
pared for the Trusts by their attorneys,
making a specious showing of the bene-
fits OF Trusts; and other newspapers,
owned by millionaires, voice their de-
tense in editorials, and thus seek to
lull the people to sleep.
The New York Tribune, in a recent
number, in an editorial on Trusts, spoke
as follows:
'Thus it has come to pass in the
many years of struggle between combi-
nation and competition that scarcely
any combination or trust can be said
to have survived which has not kept
prices of products so low as to deter
new competition. The long road is
paved with the whitened bones OF cor
porations which have fallen in the
effort to get through in some other
way. II some of them still live it is
because they have paid several times
the entire value of their plants in buy
ling up competitors. The country gain;
Iall the time by this struggle, and the
inew competitors generally draw out
more than they put in, and the only
loss falls upon those who seek to abuse
their opportunity and plunder the pub
competition springs up perpetually II
the path of monopoly. But it remains
the fact that natural laws give bette
defense by far to the public interes
than can be given by any statutory Law
man has the wit to devise"
The fimsy defense or excus'
made for Trusts in the above may b.
seen at a running glance. To say
/. That Trusts cannot live, excep
they make their prices so low, that com
petitors cannot meet them, and live, i
not borne out by the facts. The revers
is true. They reduce prices below cost
till they crush out competition, an
then they exact exorbitant rates. Tn
Standard Oil Company, because it is
Trust, controls the price of crude oil
according to its needs, and sells refine'
oils at higher price than independen
refneries sold just as good oils, befor
the, Standard bought them out, o
, crushed them out of existence. TIL
Paper Trust has advanced prices so pc
cent in six months. The fence wir
, Trust has lately made a big drop i
prices, because they had run them u
80 high, that farmers quit buying fenc
! wire. If fence wire had been nece:
, sity they would have had to buy an
, the Trust would have maintained il
exorbitant prices. But if it were tru
that Trusts can only maintain thei
, existence by making prices so low tina
it will crush out all opposition, is tha
: a good reason for their existence? Ar
: men of small capital, who are many, t
be crushed out of existence tor tn
, benefit of the few millionaires VIII
) form Trusts? Is there anybody wh
( thinks that would be a good thing fC
1.-THE country? 1t is not the nature {
Trusts to die. Big Trusts may eat u
a the little ones and leave their whitene
D bones to deceive editors who are afrai
. to enter bone yards, but the nature I
Trusts is like that of snow balls, to il
: crease in size and strength every tim
: they turn over. The Standard o
Trust, The Express Trust, the Tel
!. graph Trust, the Steel Trust, all thes
Q are living evidences of this fact. The
t millions of dividends every year, al
9 added to increase the size and power
!. the Trusts. AS things have been e
o ing, the income of the Standard o
i Company in few years will be create
than that of our National Governmen
u 2. The Tribune says "the countl
d gains all the time by this struggle b
Q tween the Trusts" How false is th
r illusion! Where do these i'll gotte
= gains of Trusts, that are piling up in
Il billions, come from, if it is not take
g from the wealth produced by the pc
, pie? Is that gain to the countr.
,,'l Is it gain to have the small livir
"a of the masses cut down to increase tt
n dangerous power of these great Trust
Is the testimony of ages false, tn