The evening times., 1900-02-17
The Power of the Trust.

The Standard Oil Company has raised
the price of oil one cent per gallon The
price is ron thirteen cents. Less than
wear ago it was eight cents. The company
is said TO have paid eighty per cent divi-
dends last year.
That is what The trust does for the con-
sumer. II is another illustration of the
rule that it is not safe 10 give any man, OF
any corporation, unlimited and uncon-
trolled power. This unnecessary exaction
does not affect the rich man. whose house
is lighted By gas or electricity. 1t does not
touch the large class of city dwellers VITO
do not use lamps. Il mulcts the poor Of
the cities and the country folk, who must
depend upon this article for their light.
That is one reason why it has gone on so
long. Those affected by The increase do
not understand the reason for il. nor can
they give up the use of oil. There is no
substitute which they can use. They must
simply economic somewhere else and save
the five cents by going Eithout some OH r
necessary article.
There is no useful or needful thing in the
poor mans house which will rot BE- reached
by the trusts in time The agitation against
their power is at present. and must remain
for years a workingman's movement, be-
cause il affects the workingman more di-
rectly than the rich II need not be ar
gued that because this is so, the emplcye
must hate the capitalist, or one class war
against another. The fact is simply that
exactions such as this OF the Standard OIL
Trust, when they are multiplied, reduce the
poor mans income almost below the
starvation point. while they dc not touch
the well-to-do. If a man must live and
support a family on an income OF two
, dollars a day. a difference of from FIVE to
/ ten cents in his days expenditures will he
/ felt by him. and If this difference is
! doubled or trebled. he is likely TO get into
, difficulties. To the man with an income
/ Of three or four Thousand a year. small
increases in daily expenses are trivial; and
his point OF view must therefore, neces-
sarily differ from that OF the laboring man.
There is another factor in the situation
which ought not to be overlooked. When
a workingman of honest industrious
habits has 10 economic. his method of re-
trenchment is different from that of his
employer Suppose well-to-do citizen,
! accustomed to a generous income loses
his money and comes down to a salary
which TO him seems small. His children
still have enough to eat and are able to
attend school: his family may be obliged
TO give up the society in which they have
been accustomed to move. but they give
up nothing which tends TO make them bet
ter citizens. The children of such man
may grow un to be just as useful to the
community as if they had millions at their
| disposal But when the workingman has
to retrench. il often means that his boys
and girls must leave school and go to work
| before they have had the education which
! they need. Il sometimes means that a
/ boy who might have been a surveyor. a
/ master mechanic or builder. must be-
! come little better than day laborer.
! Some people will say that this is not so:
! that if Young man desires 10 rise he al
ways can rise whether poor or rich. The
poor know thai a great many young fell
lows cannot take time TO prepare them
selves for the work they can do best, be-
cause of The imperative necessity of earn
ing daily bread for helpless relatives. In
developed talent is 4 loss TO the Common
wealth Ii is better to have a trained
mechanic doing laborers work. and an
artist making furniture, than to have a
clumsy bungler in control of work that
ought TO be done artistically. The coun-
| try can never have too many educated
| brains and hands. That is why anything
| that tends TO reduce the wages of the in
| iustrious and ambitious poor below the
! living point is not only an injustice to
| them. but bad for the future of the coun-
try. One reason why America has devel-
| oped with such astonishing rapidity in
/ the last hundred years is that. until a
| comparatively recent date. no such ham
pering force was possible: the American
| boy worked hard and lived plainly, but he
| had enough to eat and could find work il
/ he wanted il. and he had chance to use
| all the talent he had When the working
man owns his house. educates his chill
dren. and spends money for books and
| newspapers he makes an investment
1 which will give large returns in the future
| prosperity of the country