The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-18

conditions that would make for the avoid
ance of future trouble.
This greatest of all trusts is headed by
the banker, ]. Pier
foHMAIloN. pont Morgan. It's real
Of' The name is the United
STEEL TRUST. States Steel Corpora
tion, and it has a cap
itai stock of 81, 100 900, 900 It's avowed oh
Ject is to unite under the control of one
huge financial corporation the business
oil the largest companies engaged in the
production and manufacture of iron and
steel.
The declared motives of the syndicate
by their cold candor. mark a stem for
ward III trust-forming. Not a handful of
years to the rear and all combinations
were Ior the benefit of the consumer"
They were most unselfsh and patriotic
pelngs-these ust-formers-always look
ing out for the other fellow and never
considering SELF Mr.. Morgan, however,
grown bold in his monopolistic depreda-
lions upon the public, now hesitated not
to take the people in his confidence He
openly declared his purposes to be: It
Will reduce the cost of production and
make as much money as possible; it will
occupy SO commanding a place in produc-
tion and supply as to be able to fix the
prices and conditions; it will study care
fully the demands of the whole world
and so regulate supply and prices as to
diminish the danger of those sharp fuct-
uations in iron and steel that have al
ways been closely associated with the
alternating periods of depression and ex-
pansiOn in business.
This was very candid-this declaration
OF principles, and it is being faithfully
lived up to.
The formation of so gigantic trust
marks an event in the
NOT POSSIBLE industrial history of
BEFORE our time. very few
THIS TINE. years ago the ANAL
gamation of so great
a mass OF productive capital was not
possible. In fact, only two years ago
Mr.. Carnegie proposed just such step.
and even went so far as to give an op-
tion on his steel producing properties for
this purpose. But the financiers and in
dustrial magnates of the country were
appalled, at the idea Of anything so vast.
Whatever may be said in defence or
praise OF these gigantic corporations. it
must be acknowledged by every honest
minded man that they are menace to
our institutions and the public is fully
Justifed In watching them with the meet
careful and critical scrutiny. Such gigan-
TIC and concentrated power as they pos
seSs may conceivably be used to the ter
rlble detriment of individual citizens, also
TO the harm of the people in their collec-
tive capacity as self-governing republic.
from year to year this trust forming
tendency has gone on until the billion
dollar mark in capital stock has been
reached and past and we find ourselves
asking dazedly what we may expect next.
and where we are to find ourselves a few
years hence. Even now there are indi-
cations of further railway and steamship
amalgamatiOns of such character as to
compel the opinion that in a few years
we shall have passed out of the stage of
competition N the matter of transporta-
ton. From the community of interest
idea now held by the foremost minds in
railway administration to actual ANAL
gamation is but STEP
And by the same token cotton mill
trust is the next mile post down the pike
prices and production for independent
mills.
l am here reminded to say that the
trust problem is be-
MOST SERIOUS fore the people of this
PROBLEM country today as the
OF THE DAY. riddle of the age, and
much depends upon
it's solution. We are living in period
of extraordinary constructive genius in
the organization and administration of
business affairs Much remains to be
done for society through political instru-
mentalities, but the most serious prob
lens the modern man finds to work out
is in his capacity of a member of an
industrial community. He must weigh
his chances in the business world under
the new regime and consider it's effect
upon him as a citizen of the State. And
in this connection, no question connected
with the growth of trusts and combina-
tions is more interesting than the bearing
of the movement upon wages and upon
methods and position of trade unions OF
course there is much that is problematic
in this direction, but in spite of
many assertions to the bright contra
ry, the present strike would seem ample
evidence to sustain the proposition that
the reward OF labor under trust conditions
IS not keeping race with the reward of
capital In other words while the mass
OIL productive capital is increasing aston
lshlngly the earnings of the man dep-n-
dent upon his salary are at a standstill
Such not being the normal order of
progress, the violent conditions produced
thereby in the iron and steel industry
are not to be wondered at.
What the end of the contest will be, no
man now can tell. 1t is
LABORS bitter battle-this
OUTLOOK long fight of Labor
Is DARK. against Monopoly. On
the one side is the
toIier contending for that right which
capital has already assumed-the right to
organize. On the other is Monopoly con
tending for the right to fill its purse by
the sweat of another's brow. with none to
question or call to an accounting.
That labor is right no fair-mindeG man
can question. That it will eventually
triumph is certain, though the immediate
Ypv0 acaSlf irv L.x.~~