El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-28
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hnrtfnl TO the masses and the common
people. This is theory. Theoreh-
cally, a thing may be so. and practical
ly it may be very untrue. When
bines we think of the Standard Oh
Trust, the Sugar Trust, the Tobacco
Trust, etc. When the STANDARD GU
Trust was formed I was paying forty
cents gallon for kerosene oil; am
getting it now for ten cents galion:
was paying twelve aud one nall
cents for sugar several years ago, ous
when the com bines set In We got IL
at five and one-quarter. When the
Wnisky Trust was organized I was
in hopes it would put up wh1skey
where the poor devils cou!dnt get II.
tut they have seemed to chesPen tnet
down to where they can pay the gov
eminent 81. Is gallon revenue on IL
and yet sell 1t for 81 .27 IL, which de-
monstrates that they are making IL
and letting the public have II at
about twelve aud one-half cents
gallon.
There ia no doubt about the aggrega-
tion OF wealth, with brains controlling
it, that they can manufacture any ART
icle cheaper than it Is or has peen
manufactured on small eCale. Inc
great railroad ordinations, many
think, will eat US up blood rare. Oc-
cssion ally 1 get on a little jerk-water
read that is not in the com bination, and
1 want to double my accident policie
and be satisfied with a 15-miles
an-hsur gait and console my
self with the idea that l can
ride all day for a dollar, but when L
get on the Pennsylvania or Vander-
bilt system of roads, with their scneo-
uies forty miles an hour, vesnoule
trains, with parlor cars, sleeping cars,
diniog cars, have q hotel on wheels
carrying me towards my desstnA Won,
and all this for about two cents
mile. Give me the road that 1s In the
com bine to carry me where L am go
ing.
PUBLIC OPINION THE SAFEGUARD.
Public sentiment is the safeguard
which ia thrown around all aggrega-
tions OF wealth and all com bin ations of
interest The Standard Oil, the rail
road mbinations, the Sugar Trust
are as sensitive to public sentiment as
the snow-bank to the rays of the sun.
Trusts and combines will not hurt the
public, but stockholders and bondh Id
ers may suffer later on, when these
great bulky institutions become no.
wieldy and fall with their own weight.
Fifty thousand men in the United
States, perhaps not more, are interest
ed in the great trusts of the country.
Those so, OO0 men know that there are
10000, 600 of other people In America,
aad their wisdom teaches them where
boundary lines are, over which they
cannot go without peril to themselves
and disaster to their business. No
lie, but they have their weathercocks
out ON every prominent cupola watch
ing how the wind blows.
wHERE-THE DANGER LIES
VI course, political capital can be
made out of such formations of wealth,
and social orders may raise the black
flag to fight them: but l am a thousand
times more afraid Of demagogues and
politicians than 1 am afraid OF trusts
and ombines.
only the well-being of the citizens, but
the overthrow of all that will hurt the
citizen-depends upon good men In
office and We had better pay less atten-
tlon to what we call trusts and combl-
nations and Lore attention to those
whom we elect to Office in the mum
tcipal, state and national governments.
THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Mr.. Stead, in his book "If Christ
Came to Chicago" speaks of the
''Big Four of Chicago" and says of
them that 'their 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 combination |
means the downfall of other |
men and other ordinations. One
preacher ia preaching to 5000. twenty
preachers around him consider seven
ty.fye a full house, and hundred |
a perfect jam; one physician making
$40 900 year, and forty little doctors
In the neigh Dor hood not making their |
grub. A Wanamsker selling $50 600,
600 Q year means many little mer-
chants applying for olerkships IN his
store. Il ia the survival OF the fttest,
it may be.
When God made this world he
made mountains towering into the
clouds and valleys below the level OF
the sea; he made lax es and oceans: he
spread out the prairies OF the west
and piled up mountains around the
little valleys along the ranges OF the
Rockies and AlleRhenies. In the oceans
waters We find whales and some very
small fishes, aud when the whales come
along the little fish have to hide out.
DO TRUSTS INJURE THE MASSES?
1 have travelled over this country
from ocean to ocean, and from Montre-
al to Galveston. annually for twenty
years. [ have watched the progress of
events and the professions as they
lie instance where combines and trusts
have hurt the masses or
permanently raised the price
of any product. am thou
sand times more willing to deal with
the trusts and combines and purchase