Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-07-20
EVIL OF THE TRUSTS.
Product of Unhealthy Political
Conditions.

- - e.~~---,
Whatever merit there may be in the
claim made by the defenders of the
trust, that the trust is the national
product of our Industrial evolution, in
asmuch as it economies human energy
and cheapens the product, it is appar-
ent that the evils SO outweigh the good
that the question naturally arises
which can be the best. dispense with
the trust or the republic?
OF what avail is it, if to save human
energy, we are compelled to sacrifice
the independence of our people, there
by sapping the very vitals of our re-
public? 1t is not many years ago, when
any young man of thrift and energy
could look forward to becoming his
own master. The opportunity was
open to him of carving his own destiny.
How different to-day. The young man
of to-day can expect nothing better
than to be the hireling of some cor
poration or trust. If he is a man of
great ability he may in return for the
surrender of every vestige of his indie
pendence obtain a most liberal salary.
If of mediocre ability he will be COM
PEELED to work for starvation wages.
The door of opportunity being closed
to him, he becomes an industrial de-
pendent, a servile, slave; being indus
trially dependent, it follows as a
matter of course that he is politically
dependent. 1t was this feeling of de-
pendence, this fear of coercion of their
masters, that made thousands of cor
10 co.
Mckinley instead of Bryan in 1896.
OF what avail is our free ballot or our
free institutions. if through fear of
starvation the thousands of these de-
pendents will be found willing to bar
ter such freedom, wherein lies the flu
ture of the republic?
The dangers that confront this ma
ton today are not from without, but
from within. We need the bravery of
the citizen who dares to cast a free
ballot, more than we do the bravery OF
the soldier who stands defiant amid
the smoke of battle. We need heroes
of peace more than heroes of war.
Men who never finched before over
whelming odds on the battlefield are
with craven mien surrendering to the
trust barons every day. A ten-line
notice on the factory door will create
a greater stampede than battery of
rapid-fire guns. The trusts have al
ready weakened the moral stamina of
the nation, otherwise every state
would inaugurate stricter quaran-
tine against them than they would
against Asiatic cholera.
The trust in private hands saves hu-
T. L
eft? 1t displaces the energy of hope
by the energy of fear. It robs the
young man of manly independent
hope. The trust is moral leper. It
injects its soulless creed into our po-
litical life. Ethics give way to ma
terialism; altruism to egotism; the
brotherhood of man to the divine
rights of kings. The reign Of the
trusts is but resurrection of the feu-
dial system. The power of the feudal
barons of the middle ages was mere
bagatelle compared to the power of
the industrial barons of to-day. The
retainer of the olden time who felt
that he was abused could betake
himself to the forest and green sward,
and live a jolly, if not a virtuous life
With a good, faithful long bow and
hound he need not starve. The re-
tainer of to-day in the person of the
factory slave, the bankrupt small deal
er, the ex-traveling man and the clerk
in the department. store, the teacher
or the preacher are quickly starved
into subsection.
It is no more criminal to control
the supply of coal than it is the sup
ply OF sunshine. It is just as neces-
sary for society to control the supply
of ice as it is the supply of sewers.
We can just as logically claim that
the plague is the outcome of our in
dustria1 evolution as to claim that the
trust is. The trust is a disease, the
product of diseased political and eco
nomic system. It was born and fos-
tered by unnatural parents. It was
sired by special privilege and damned
by transportation discrimination It's
godfather was a contracted currency.
Nothing can be natural that is the off
spring of the unnatural. Nothing can
be politically healthy that was bred
by political diseases. j. Kent, in