The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-04-27

loss to workingmen would aggregate
about $4,000 week. The Chicago
Times Herald. a staunch Republican |
gathered reports from the |
mill towns themselves, which indicate
that about 9, $50 men are thrown out
OF employment and a loss OF $sS. 600 in
wages each week is incurred. Col.
John w. Lambert, one of the direct
ing officials of the trust, explained the
shutdown with the characteristic in
science and brutality of the typical
trust magnate thus: "Our company
is running it's business without any
need of explaining. We shut down
and open our mills when we see fit"
No well regulated mind nor any con-
science not completely ossified by the
persistent pursuit of money-making to
the exclusion of all other ideas, will for
a moment accept the theory that a
business which employs nearly 1000
men, a business upon the continuance
of which the livelihood of probably
81, 900 people is Immediately depend
ent, is the sole concern of few indi-
viduals who, by methods familiar to
corporation managers, have seized
upon its control. The people as a
whole have some rights III these prem
ises. The nation cannot honestly re-
main silent and supine while the dom
nation of a corporation over the lives
and happiness of a great body of in
dustrious men and their dependents is
thus wantonly and brutally abused.
In this specific case different explana-
tions are given for the shut down. 1t
is said that it was caused by overpro-
duction. But that is lie, for all
through the west farmers and mechan-
les have been stopped from satisfying
their wants for the products OF this
monopoly because its managers have
repeatedly increased prices until they
have reached almost the prohibitory
point. If there is any over supply of
its product in the market it is because
the prices put upon it are such that
| the ordinary consumer is driven to all
sorts of expedients to avoid purchas-
ing. 1t is said by others that the true
| reason for the shutdown was that the
ruling spirits in the trust, one OF
whom, by the way, John w. Gates, is
a Republican aspirant for a United
States Senatorship, have certain
plans for manipulating the stock
market which the shutdown will
further. This is possibly true, but it
only lays emphasis upon the folly and
the criminality of permitting the con-
troll of great and necessary industry
in the United States to pass into the
hands of a small body of men, men
who would not have gained control OF
it if they had not possessed the in
stinct of gamblers, and who naturally
utilize their control to further their
gambling transactions.
We have said that business of this
sort is not private business and that
no individual can rightfully make
such statement as Col. Lambert is
| quoted as having made, and that the
people as a whole must not sit quietly
by and allow his position to be main
tanned without protest. But in saying
this it is not necessary to go to the
| ofI,ar ovtro,pa and bold tbat haoo =, G q
the business has attained such quail
ties Of monopoly it should be conduct,
ed by the government according to the
sociaIistic idea. The reason the 1000
employees of the American Steel and
Wire Company are suddenly and arbi.
trarily thrown out of work is because
one single governing board controls
the employment of all OF them and
controls the industry in which all are
engaged. If the twelve mills involved
were operating as corporations should
Observation-Disclosures or two
might shut down., but the others
would continue. Indeed, it is most
unlikely that any would shut down,
because the mill SO doing would be in
danger of losing its trade to those
which remained in continuous opera,
ton. If, therefore, the existing anti,
trust law had been enforced against
this monopolistic corporation, not only
would the farmers not be compelled to
pay extortionate prices for their fenc
ing nor the mechanics mulcted of eX
tortionate sums for wire nails and
metal rods, but the workingmen now
out of employment would still be i'll
enjoyment of their wages, their fami
lies would be living in comfort, and
the tradesmen dependent upon theii
custom would not suffer. 1t is pro ga
BILE that Mr.. John w. Gates, the presi
dent of the present monopoly, might
be unable to lose a hundred thousand
dollars at poker, as he was reported to
have done few weeks ago in one oil
New York's gorgeous hotels, but the
country at large could struggle along
even though Mr.. Gates sportive incli
nations might be restrained.