The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-05-05
THE F/GHT AGAINST
TRUSTS.


editorial from the New York
Journal, one of the most powerful
antagonists of the trusts:
"When the people have secured
control of the machinery of govern
ment by electins their own Sen a.
tors, they will have TO use it for the
Improvement of their condition.
And first they will have to deal in
coed earnest with the subject of
trusts.
"Never before in the worlds
history has an industrial revolution
progressed with such appalling VEL
ocity as has that which is trans
forming the United States from a
nation of independent equals into a
nation of a few employers and a
mass Of hired men. In some of it's
aspects this revolution is harmless,
and even beneficent. The trusts
have taught US the lesson of the Or
vantages of concentration of capital
and labor are not to be sacrificed.
We can never go back to the time
when every individual was a separ-
ate atom, pursuing his lonely course
with no connection with any other.
"But the trust, which has III it
great powers for good, contains also
the most portentous powers for
evil. 1t has given us new kinds of
robbery, new kinds of bribery, new
kinds Of murder, new kinds of crime
of every description, and all raised
to superhuman degree.
1.-The criminal law will have to be
revised to meet these new condi-
tons, and to cope with forms of
crime more formidable and more
destructive than any thing dreamed
of when it was framed.
'sWhen the common law grew up
a thief was a person who surrepti
tiously pocketed something, usually
of trifling value. They used to
hang him if he took more than three
worth. A briber was one
who tipped voter or an official
with a few coins. A murderer was
one who killed an individual enemy.
The machinery of our courts is or
gained to punish offences of this
sort. The burglar who climbs into
a window at night and goes through
the pockets of pair of trousers
T.
known to our law. Yet he is an
with the new class of
Titanic criminals with which the
law has not yet begun to deal.
The Steel and Wire Trust can de-
prive six thousand men of their
livelihood in a day, take $14,ooo,-
900 from the pockets of investors
and transfer it to those of the men
in the ring. All the burglars in
America could not do as much.
Yet it is not at all certain that this
crime can be touched bv the law as
it stands. The dispatches from
nonchal antly remark: sMr.
Gates is not worrying about what
the papers say about him; cares
about the Noonan resolu-
ton before Congress, and says: 81
do not care to say what I intend to
do"
"In place of the old-fashioned
briber who used to offer a member
of the Legislature $500 in green
backs for his vote we have now the
trust magnate who SIM
ply gives a quiet tip on stocks that
may make the favored recipient of
his confidence $4,000 richer in an
hour.
"In place Of the vulgar murderer
who sneaks up behind a single vic
tim with a sandbag we have corp,r-
atoms coolly computing the value
of human life, and killing the thous-
ands with poisoned beef, adulter-
ated beer and unguarded grade
crossings.
.'Our whole legal system has
been built to deal with small mat
tiers. 1t can do we'll in handling
retail transactions. But to ask it
to cope in civil and criminal pro-
ceediugs with the gigantic conspira-
cies that are overshadowing the
Government is like attempting to
lock battle ship through the Erie
Canal.
stOnce the Roman world was in
tested with pirates, so that instead
of being an occasional nuisance
these marauders became terrify-
ing danger. They formed great
fleets and swept the Mediterranean,
pillaging commerce, enslaving peace
full passengers and sailors, and
ravaging the shores. At last it be-
came evident that the old methods
OF preserving The peace had broken
down. and the Romans dignifed
the pirates by making them the OBJ
jects of a regular war. They or
-