New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1900-06-02
CRUSH THE CRIMINAL TRUSTS.
Will the American People Awaken to the
Dangers that Beset the Republic?

| elected President he was considered
the richest man in the Unite,
States. He had property wortl
about million dollars, but he wa
sometimes hard up for ready cash
In those days every American
citizen owned himself. If he die
not like the terms of his employ
ment he found another employer
or struck out on his own account
He was a man, and nobody elst
was anything more.
But now the citizen finds himself
helplessly confronting power thai
is rapidly absorbing all the wealth
and all the business opportunities
of the country. He cannot face
that power as man facing men
When he is in the service of trust
he cannot seek another employer
for there is no other employer in
the trusts field. He cannot 90 into
business for himself, for the trust
controls all the avenues of produc.
ton. He must learn to cringe fol-
the favor of his master-the abso-
lutte lord of his means of livelihood.
In the middle of March of last
year there were 356 trusts and com
binations in existence in the United
States, with a total capitalization
of $5, 49,, 1927
In ten weeks after that sixty
three new trusts were formed, with
a capitalization of 81 ,5S3, 1853, 900.
That brought the total capital of
American trusts at that time up to
$7,416, ,235, ,779.
At the end Of the year 1897 New
Jersey reported that it alone had
chartered 1900 corporations, with
an aggregate capitalization of $4,-
4O3, 100000. One of these, the
Federal Steel Company, was cap
italized at $2OO,0O0,00O; another,
the Distilling Company of North
at 1925, 900, 900; another,
the Standard Oil Company, at
$11O, 100000 representing an ac-
tual investment value of not less
than one billion), and twenty-four
others running from $50, ,OOO,0 900
to $50, 900, 900 each.
At this time the total wealth of
American trusts is certainly not less
than ten billion dollars.
But the mere concentration of
industry is not the thing that is
most ominous. Concentration in
itself is a necessary accompaniment
of evolution. If the trusts were
legitimately developed in the natu-
raj course Of business they would
do no particular harm and might
do good. It is not the trust. but the
criminal trust that is dangerous.
Thirty years ago the oil region
Of Western Pennsylvania was flour
ishing and happy-filled with a
busy, prosperous population, with
thriving cities and active, enter.
prising business men. But while the
wells continued to flow, a blight fell
spon the people. Fortunes withered
away, industries dried up, towns
and died. The people
did not know then what was the
matter, but they know now. It
was crime that ruined them. They
we're in the grip of "criminal
rust"
The Standard Oil combination,
even in those days of its infancy,
vas able to destroy whole COM
nunities by the methods of the
midnight assassin. 1t made secret
contracts with the railroads by
which it received rebates Of half
he amounts paid in freights, not
,nly by itself, but by its competi-
ors. Thus the Independent refining
companies not only paid exorbitant
'reight charges themselves, but they
lctually paid the charges on the
Standard Oil shipments, so that the
got its own cargoes
arried for nothing. In addition
he railroads agreed to spy upon
he business of the independent re-
lners, their patrons, for Standard
)il's benefit.
That was one form of crime-a
ubtle form, which, perhaps, men
Who passed the contribution box on
Sundays might call strategy"
3ut there were other more vulgar
orms, such as send persons with |
mt wealth to prison. Charles B. |
datthews built an oil refinery in
buffalo. The trust, by bribes and
hreats of ruin, seduced his partner
nd induced him to blow up the
rorks. He filed a still with crude
il, weighted down the safety valve |
vith iron, packed it with plaster of |
'aris, fired up under it until the |
irebox was cherry red, and ran
way. By q miracle no lives were
ost. It was no fault of the criminal
ruaf that there were nnt n hundrod