The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-13
Sam JoneS' View OF
The Trdsf Question
From the Manufacturers Record.

From the Manufacturers Record.
TILE LARGE trusts and combinations already |
\ formed and being formed by aggregations Of
n capital arc considered hurtful to the masses
and tho common people. This is theory.
When we speak Of trusts and combines we think
of the Standard oil Trust the Sugar Trust, the
Tobacco Trust etc. When the Standard Oil
Trust was formed ! was paying 40 cents a gallon
for kerosene oil; am getting it now for 10
cents gallon. ! was paying l217 cents for
sugar several years ago, but when the combines
set in we got it at 5A. When the Whisky
Trust was organized was in hopes it would
put up whiskey where the poor devils couldn't
get itbut they have seemed to cheaper that down
to where they can pay the government sl.lj a
gallon revenue on it and yet sell it for sl.27la,
which demonstrates that they are making it and
letting the public have it at about 1912 cents a
gallon
There is no doubt about the aggregations Of
wealth, with brains controlling it, that they
can manufacture any article cheaper than it is
or has been manufactured small scale.
The great railroad combinations many think,
will eat us W blood rare. Occasionally get
on a little ierk.watcr road that is not in the
combination, and want to double my accident
policies and be satisfied with a l5.milc-anhour
gait and console myself with the idea that
can ride all day for a dollar, but when | get
roads, with their schedules forty miles an hour,
vcsthulc trains with rarlor cars, sleeping cars,
dining cars, | have hotel on wheels carrying
me toward my destination, and all this for about
cents mile Give me the road that is in
the combine to carry me where am going.
Public sentiment is the safeguard which is
thrown around all aggrcgations of wealth and
all combinations Of interest. The Standard
OIL the railroad combinations, the Sugar Trust
are as sensitive to public sentiment as the
| snowhank to the rays Of the sun. Trusts and
combines will not hurt the public, but stock
holders and hondholders may suffer later on,
when these great bulky institutions become un.
wicldy and fall with their own weight. Fifty
| thousand men in the United States, perhaps not
more. are interested in the great trusts of the
country. Those j0,OO0 men know that there are
| 7O,OO,OoO of other people in America, and their
wisdom teaches them where boundary lines are,
over which they cannot 20 without peril to them
selves and disaster to their business. No combi.
nation now says damn the public" but they
have their weathcrcocks out on every prominent
| Cupos watching how the wind blows
| OF course, political capital can be made out
| Of such formations of wealth, and social orders
| may raise the black flag to fght them; but /
| am a thousand times mere afraid Of dema
| gogucs and politicians than ! am afraid Of
|
means not only the well.being Of the citizen, but
the overthrow Of all that will hurt the citizen
/ depends upon good men in office, and we had
better pay less attention TO what we call trusts
! and combinations and more attention 10 those
! whom we elect to office in the municipal, state
and national governments. Mr. Stead. In his
! book "lf Christ Came to Chicago" speaks Of
! the big Four Of Chicago" and says of them
! that "thcir methods are clear and their trans
| nCt ipus honest that in no road Of their
success lies the blood and bones of the -ictims
/ over whom they have run to success" The
| successful man or combination means the down.
! fall Of other men and other combinations.
One preacher is preaching to 5000, twenty
preachers around him consider seNenty-fve a
! full house, and a hundred a perfect jam; cne
! physician making $4,000 year. and forty
little doctors in the ncghborhood not making
! their grub. 4 Wanamakcr selling $4,000 900
year means many little merchants applying
for ClcrkShipS in his store II is the survival OF
! the fttcst, it may be. When God made this
world lie made mountains towering into the
clouds and valleys below the level Of the sea
He made lake. and oceans; lie spread out the
prairics Of the West and piled up mountains
around the little valleys along the ranges Of
the Rockies and the Allcghcnics. In the ocean's
waters We find whales and some very small fishes,
and when the whales come along the little fish
have to hide out. | have travelled over this
country from ocean TO ocean and from Montreal
to Galveston, annually for twenty years, have
watched the progress of events and the process
sious as they marched ! have yet to know OF a
single instance where. combines and trusts hurt
the masses or permanently raised the price o
any product. I am a thousand times more will
ing to deal with the trusts and combines and
purchase thcSr products than | am 10 put my
money into their institutions and imperil my
holdings conscious Of their want Of stability
3 ,v,AF V,,tr Anal all
OF course these great combinations affect leg
isaton, II they DO not control IL in many in
stances hut while they may procure Legislation
in their own interest, yet they have one eyt
upon the public sentiment all the time, conscious
that they can 60 Just so Tar and farther
Here and there they have shut down manu-
factory or closed up an institution and affected
some individuals, but VIC arc not lookinJ from
that standpoint When we look at the "a, ,0O0 M
of our population, we say they are only procur
inc cheaper and buying for less money thes
products than they could have done under othe
Circumstances.
With the final dsintcgration Of trusts anc
con'hinos-which will inevitably come whel
financial disaster and shrinkage NJ values 7hal
comc--oi course, the surplus Of their produc
win he thrown upon the market, and only TN
stockholders in these trusts and combines viii
suffer As sure as that the sun shines, when
ever any institution becomes unwicldly beclus
Of its size and bulk, it will finally fall OF it
own weight.
am an eHparsionst, and I believe that on
Of the causes Of the stringency and shrinkag
? Of values in this country is because We hav
, not gone out over the seas with our product
as we should have done, While their is d,
mand for our products Of the farm and MANI
' factory Of this country there will always b
2 plenty Of money; hut when wheat and cor
and cotton and all kinds Of manufactures are
drug on the market, and no demand for then
then have stringency and hard times Bu
$ ! when the highways over the seas shall he lade
I with our products into foreign countries, an
, the gold Is brought back in the ships then "
shall flourish perennially. These great comhni
e tous are the only powers In this country that ca
I do this thing for ms, negro and an old mu
, can make corn and cotton; a fellow with a 20
dollar saw mill can make lumber; but only al
gregations of walth can build ships and ope
I mGFksts in foreign lands.