The Newtown bee., 1900-07-13

that they can manufacture any article
cheaper than it is or has been manu-.
featured on small scale. The great
railroad combinations, many think, will
eat US up blood rare. Occasionally get
on little jerk-water road that is not in
the combination. and L want to double
my accident policies and be satisfied with
5-mile-an-hour gait and console myself
with the idea that can ride all day for q
dollar, but when get on the Pennsyl.
vania or Vanderbilt system of roads, with
their schedules of forty miles an hour,
vestibule trains, with parlor cars, sleep.
ing cars, dining cars, L have a hotel
carrying me towards my destination, and
all this for about two cents mile. Give
me the road that ia in the combine to
carry me where 1 am going.
Public sentiment is the safeguard
which is thrown around all aggregations
of wealth and all combinations of inter-
est. The Standard Oil, the railroad COM
binations, the Sugar Trust are as sensa-
tive to public sentiment as the snowbank
to the rays of the sun. Trusts and com.
bines will not hurt the public, but stock
holders and bondholders may suffer later
on, when these great bulky institutions
become unwieldy and fall with their own
weight. Fifty thousand men in the
United States, perhaps not more, are in
terested in the great trusts of the country.
Those 30 600 men know that there are
70, 900. 600 Of other people in America,
and their wisdom teaches them where
boundary lines are, over which they can
not go without peril to themselves and
disaster to their business. No combine
ton now says damn the public" but
they have their weathercocks out on
every prominent cupola watching how
the wind blows.
or course, political capital can be made
out OF such foundations OF wealth, and
social orders may raise the black flag to
fight them but am thousand times
more afraid Of demagogues and poll
ticians than am afraid of trusts and
combines. Good government-which
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 COM
binations and more attention to those
whom we elect to Office In the municipal,
State and national governments. Mr.
Stead, in his book eff Christ Came to
Chicago" speaks of the "Big Four of
Chicago" and says of them that sstheir
methods are clean and their transactions
are honest, but that In the road of their
success lies the blood and bones Of the
victims over whom they have run to
success" The successful man or com.
means the downfall of other
men and other combinations. One
preacher is preaching to 5000, twenty
preachers around him consider seventy
five full house, and q hundred perfect
am; one physician making $4,000 a |
year, and forty little doctors In the neigh.
borhood not making their grub. Al
selling $50, 200, 900 a year
means many little merchants applying
for clerkship in his store. 1t Is the sur
Vival Of the fittest, 1t may be. When
God made this world He made mountains
covering into the clouds and valleys be-
ow the level Of the sea; he made lakes
md oceans; He spread out the prairies |
If the West and piled up mountains |
around the little valleys along the ranges
II the Rockies and Alleghenies. In the
oceans waters we find whales and some
very small fishes, and when the whales
come along the little fish have to hide
nut. have travelled over this country
rom ocean to ocean, and from Montreal
Q Galveston, annually for twenty years.
have watched the progress Of events
nd the proce ssions as they marched. L
AVE yet to know of single instance
where combines and trusts hurt the
masses or permanently raised the price
t any product. am thousand times
more willing to deal with the trusts and
ombines and purchase their products
han I am to put my money into their ,
1stitutions and imperil my holdings, :
onscious Of their want Of stability and I
caring their final downfall.
or course these great combinations {
feet legislation, Il they do not control
in many instances, but while they may
rocure legislation in their own Interest, Il
ct they have one eye upon the public 9
sntiment al the time, conscious that !!
ley can 60 just 80 far and no fArther.