The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-12-04

privileges being given to such industriai
combinations. Wage earners get but q
small proportion of what they produce.
Under this system of trusts, opportuni-
ties toward eduai. rights are closed.
Men with small capital cannot employ
1t because they can't compete with
these monstrous organizations. Young
men, who are not favored with %
legacy, have little. chance to get to
the top of the ladder as their fore
fathers have done. This system will
breed tramps, which means idleness
and crime.
As summary of the whole, we see
the wealth and opportunities passing
into the hands of few wherever Il
trust has been organized as yet. The
land upon which should be the homes
Of the people by their own ownership
and the industries which formerly were
divided among millions OF people, are
passin rapidly into the ownership OF
few. Competition formerly regulated
prices but now these combinattons
regulate them. To regulate these evils
will be impossible; they must be pro-
hibited. When war is over and Industry
is no longer fed by means of the vast
expenditure of the peoples money and
when all business will be measured by
the natural demands of our people, the
power of the people to consume will
be greatly lessened. This will mean a
large decrease In the consumption or
trust products and what must follow
this are still higher prices. When this
point has been reached in the develop
ment of trusts, they win of necessity
go into each others business and panic
and failures must follow. The entire
industrial system will fall into the
hands of one great trust-the money
trust. Then the evil of these vast COM
binations will be fully known and their
effects fully felt by all classes. One of
the great combinations of capital, the
evils of which desire to point out as
they seem to me, lies in the huge ag-
gregation of national banks, which,
through close cooperation for many
years, have secured, by the enactment
of the financial bill, Of March IA, 1900,
Ia copy of which can be secured by ad-
dressing the secretary of the treasury
for circular No. 113) almost absolute
control of the money volume. BY this
legislation, through this monopoly, they
can contract or expand the volume of
money al will The evil of this comhi-
nation can be pointed out in the words
of President Mckinley when he said in
a speech, some years ago. You are de-
termined to contract the circulating
medium, limit the volume of money
among the people, making money
| scarce, therefore dear" The danger /
wish to point out is in the contraction
of the circulating medium either by the
withdrawal of part of the bank note
circulation or by no further increase in
the bank note issue, which would GER
tainly make money dear and break
down the general price level. There Is
nothing which has caused the organiza-
ton sof trusts SO much. in,past years,
as the general fall in prices, which
teaused business men to get together
lsinto combinations for protection.
| In conclusion, / want to ask: Is the
massing of large fortunes, made at the
lexpense of thousands and thousands of
small manufacturers and laborers,
| through this system of trusts, in accord
twith sound public policy? Are such
denominations good "omens for our in
idustrial' prosperity? L. think not.