Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1900-08-17

Joshua Simpkins, of "The Corners"
was sitting in his store smoking Vir-
ginis sheroOt.
"Y on air lOOkin' mighty comfortable
Uncle j Josh, fat as a monk and sassy a.
a king as the sayin' is" said Zechitl
Jones
~ es, sir, Zeke. I'm more comfOrta
bic than lots of poor devils | hear OF
I've jest been readin' how the steel wire
and nail trust has shut down at Ander-
son. Indiana, and throwed LOO men
out of employment. They are men
who have devoted their lives to that
kind of work, and some of them air too
old TO learn new trade. Ye know the
ssyin' on can't learn an old dog new
tricks You see, Zeke, the greater
part of these men owned their humbl~
homes at Anderson. All their neigh
bors and old friends live there. Some
of them has their children buried there,
but they've got to git out or starve.
And, Zeke, this presents another phsZe
of the curse of trusts. You know the
orators of our party used to tell us II
CLOWN story about the home market.
| can see the smoke bilin' up from the
factory chimney, and hear the hum of
the machinery, Jeet as it was pictured
from the speskin' platform. They told
us that was the blessing of protective
tariff. 1t built up factories in small
cities and towns and you and | holered
our assent. Well sir. it is strange 10
say, but true, that the msnufscturin'
trusts has all grown up under that same
protective tariff and now they air shut
tin down and tearin' up the factories
in the small cities and towns and CEN
term all OF them in the large cities.
! How does that affect owners of farms
in the county where they air located.
Ii depreclates the value, don't it, Zeke :?
And how does 1t affect the man who
keeps store in these small cities and
towns, Zeke? The trusts kill the fac
tories, and that kills the town and
small city, fer when there's no work
men can't buy, and they can't stay in
the town. And agin' it ssps the life
out of the small cities and towns and
country and gives il to the large cities
| The time will come, Zeke, and mark We
what | say. the time will come when
store keepin' in small cities and towns
will all be done by trust, If their
power haint broke soon. They will put
one large dry goods store in Plymouth,
fer instance, as a mere distributor of
their goods, and they will drive out all
individual enterprise, by underselling
the other fellers, jest long enough to
drive them out"
"If they do that, then we'll git our
stuff cheaper" said Zeke.
"Yes, jest long enough, | say, to drive
the other fellers out. Let's take home
illustration. There's Kloepfer and Ball
& Co.. at Plymouth, | suppose they
have $1,000 each invested. Well, sup
pose trust, which controls ell the dry
goods manufactured wanted TO squeeze
them out, fer tell you, Zeke, trust is
q huge game of freeze out, and you
know what that is. Well, they start
store at Plymouth as distributor of
their goods. Now you must keep in
mind that kloepfer and Ball Il Co.
can't buy any goods except from them,
and they can't buy any in foreign
country because your and my prOtec-
tive tariff won't let them come in.
What would they do for goods, Zeke,
Id like to have you tell mep That
means shut up shop fer them and the
trust can sell to us fur their price"
at won't come to that will it, Uncle
Josh ?" asked Zeke
"WOn't itY Well, Zeke, suppose l
had told you when We voted fer Nc
kinley in 1896, that as soon as the
DINGHY tariff bill was passed trusts
would begin to form in everything,
from peanuts up, until 200 was formed
in less than two years, you'd called
me lynn democrat, wouldn't We, Zeke !?
Well them's the gospel facts.
81 tell you, Zeke, the monopoly I've
illustrated is the logical result of Mr.
Hanna's evolution in business, and it
will come if Mckinley and the trust
fellers air TO run this country.
"Zeke, did you ever read the fable of
the fox that got his tail caught In the
ice and had to pull it off to get away,
and then tried to get the other foxes to
cut their tails off because he said il
looked better? Well, our party has got
it's tail caught by this Hanna trust
crowd and 40 fer as I'm concerned they
can get 1t loose the best way they can.
I'm not going to support a party that is
held by the tail by them kind of fellers.
"Well, ! must be agoin, Uncle Josh.
"Good day, Zeke. Good-day. I'm pass
in the nine day period of party blind
ness. I'm readin' somethin' besides John
Sider's Plymouth Republican this year"
DATE TO he CHANGED.