The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-24


/ "A fool is sometimes able TO teach wise
men wisdom" said Andrew Carnegie
when, at the Atlantic City love feast and
I trust reorganization meeting, his attorney
[ demonstrated how easy it would be TO set
1 tie all the narrowing partnership difficult
/ ties TO the satisfaction of everybody except
] the consumers of two continents who will
! now be more than ever at the mercy Of the
/ giant steel trust. The proverb as Mr..
| Carnegie explained is a Scotch one There
/ is another Of international character, to
which he did not refer probably because
the peculiar circumstances of the case
would have rendered it inapplicable. 1t is
to the effect that when certain persons fall
out. certain other persons get their due.
1t was not so in the instance under con-
sideration. The falling out only resulted in
a bigger and more grinding monopoly, and
the munopolists. who but yesterday were
breathing threatenings and slaughter and
summonses. complaints. and affidavits
against each other. fell upon one another's
breasts and wept tears of joy and recon
ciliatien.
TEN had been averted. The American
people would now have no chance to learn,
through the Carnegie litigation, how one
concern had profited by the Mckinley and
Dingley prohibitive tariffs until it could
estimate its profits for 1900 at over forty
million dollars. The profits will be greater
now, because a two hundred million dollar
corporation takes the place and takes over
the property and interests Of the limited
partnerships. and also covers all the mines,
coke territory and plants. railway and lake
transportation lines. and everything else
which heretofore have been utilized by Car
negie & Co. Limited. Everything from
the ground TO the finished product is the
spirit of the deal. as one enthusiastic
dealer exclaimed. The expanded octopus
is not porcine In its feelings or purposes.
It is like the old man who said 4 do not
want the earth, but just only the land that
joins on minei'
We have often wondered how any Ameri-
can could become imbued with the belief
that the great trust monopolies which
have been built up under Republican tariff
laws could possibly be good for or even
tolerable by free people. In effect they
amount to great national gifts TO few
favored individuals, and added and TN
necessary burdens for the laborer and con-
sumer But now We can readily under
stand how philanthropists like Mr.. Car
negie. Mr.. Phipps, and Mr.. Prick, might
consider such a thing as Dingleyism. which
has reduced the people Of Porto Rico to
pakedness and starvation as an unmixed
blessing bestowed by a benignant Provi-
dence upon people who endow public
Libraries own great castles in Scotland,
and preach to others the unutterable sat
isfaction involved in being poor.
The Carnegie Prick war having come 10
a pleasant end, and without anything like
the scandal which had been expected and
the Republican Administration and lead
ers had feared, there will be signs OF re-
lief in the White House and chuckles of
financial expectation at the Hanna head
quarters. a tariff system which has di-
rectly produced a trust property said by
one Of Is owners to be worth two hundred
and sixty million dollars, and which will
continue to roll up wealth for the concern
now that peace is assured
and reorganization accomplished. is a thing
to be supported. Carnegie, Phipps, and !
Frick. separated and engaged in hostili- |
ties, might be hard TO reach effectively |
with the campaign prod; but the same |
men. united in the sacred ties Of the new |
two hundred million dollar corporation. |
will be quite a different affair. They may |
be safely put down for three or four mil |
lions in the interest Of continued trust |
and there viii be money in the |
hat for the spelbinders and highbinders |
when the time comes to turn them loose |
upon the country.