The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-09-01

' Dlscri N mated Against and Pow
erful Interests Are Guilt Up-The
Tariff ,is the Mother Of Trusts
Public Ownership IL the Solution.
The pro yress of man is one long
stru ,gle or independence, struggle
for fl 'eedo: m, a struggle to get out of
the power of other men. No matter
how we'll -intentioned the wielder of
tho now err may be, the person over
whom it il; welded cannot reach a
healthy dev elopment or enjoy the full
measure of / Instance in that condition.
Lincoln EXPIRE ssed foundamentaltruth
when he dec Jared that no man was
good enough TO govern another. The
principle unde, lying it all is that when
a man is in tt G power of another he
cannot reach hi 5 highest estate.
In the domain of intellect all systems
which place one set of men in the
power of another net were failures. Alb
solute freedom way necessary. In the
domain of religionahsolute freedom was
found to be the only Healthy condi-
| ton. In the domain of. government
mankind came up throug h all manner
of experiments in the way of limiting
power and PREVENT ag it's use, but
these systems were all failures. Fin
| ally it was recogniz ed that absolute
| political freedom wa s the only true
| basis for the organi "a ton of human
society.
Manifestly there co uld be no more
Objectionable power than power that
i controls the bread we eat, the clothes
we wear and the roof we lie down un-
! der at night. 1t is clear that our in
tellectual, religious AMI political free
| dom will avail us little if we are to
have industrial and fin< lncial slavery.
| We find that in many fields COMPETE
ton has entirely failetT and ceased to
| exist, Whether in the long run this
is for the better or the worse we need
not now inquire. In the whole domain
Of public utilities, SucE4 as supplying
waiter, gas, electric light, street railway
service, etc., there is RIO longer COM
petition, but monopoly in the hands of
few individuals.
In all of these cases if the people got
the benefit of the mon' opoly it would be
a blessing, because monopoly can
II cheaper production a nd improve the
! service. But so long rs the monopoly
is in the hands Of few individuals
the public is absolutely in their power.
The web and roof Of modern society
is transportation. Communities are no
longer independent as they once were,
but are inter-dependent. Yet trans
Dor tation, which is both food and raj
inert and shelter, is controlled, not by
the public whose life depends on it,
but by private monopoly-a monopoly
that has the public absolutely in it's
power, and as yet there has been no
exception to the rule that when men
\ have power they use it.
Not only is the public in the power
of the transportation companies, but
these companies practice discrimina-
tions whereby they build up a few
Ter shipper. Substantially every manu-
featured article that is of prime me-
cessity to our people is controlled by a
trust, which can arbitrarily fix prices.
The method of forming trust is SIM
pie All, or nearly all, of the estab-
lishments engaged in manufacturing
the same line of goods are placed un-
der one management. This manage
4 ment then has monopoly of supplying
: the market ana can raise prices at
~ pleasure. EVcI IL IT. IO"c1Cu pIlCCO, H.
! is evident that the principle is bad, for
the public ought not to be in the power
of any set Of men,
If there were no other objections to
trusts and monopo1ies than these I
have named it is clear that we must
rise up and destroy them or be devour-
ed. But the evils we. have complained
of are among the least. The collateral
evils are worse than direct ones.
First, they do not bear their share of
the public burdens.
Second, they insist on controlling the
preacher in the pulpit the editor in
the sanctum and the professor in the
lecture room. They cove independ-
ence and destroy free thought and free
speech. They suppress the truth and
- cultivate falsehood, and with vulgar
swager they darkingly seek to domi-
nate every business and all social af-
fairs. r.
Third the systems and the practices
which the corporations have brought
in vogue destroy the families of the
men who profit by them, and thus So
ciety in the end suffers from the des-
truction of a portion of it's members
Nearly all of the abuses we complain
of TODAY can be traced to special .privi-
leges. The gas companies; street rail-
way companies, transportation COM
panies, trust companies of various
kinds, all have special privileges. They
have charters authorizing them to per-
form some function which puts the
public in their power, while if the pub
lie had performed this function it.
self it would have remained indepen.
dent Government cannot delegate any
of it's powers to private individuals
without giving these private individ
uals an advantage over other citizens
There is no question but that the
tariff is the mother Of some OF thu
trusts; it builds a wall around tn
country and keeps foreign goods out
This makes it possible for the home
manufacturers of any article to pu
all their establishments under on
management, and thus have the PEG
pie at their mercy Break down tina
wall; let foreign goods come in and tn
trusts will have to reduce their prices