The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1901-03-29
THE RULE OF THE sYNDIcATE.

THE RULE OF THE SYNDICATE.
The reign Of the syndicate has be
gun. What the end viii be-before
the government shall have to absorb
the syndicate lest the syndicate absorb
the government one can tell But
strange things are happening, and viii
happen in the matter Of syndicate
rate making, and rate-making regu-
lates the country's trade. Already we
read in the San Francisco papers that
to the great syndicate having steamship
lines on the Pacific as well as the At
lantic, the transcontinal lines are
but link between Hamburg and Hong
Kong.
San Francisco hitherto has been a
terminal point 1t will soon cease to
be one. Already the railroads an
nounce lower freight rates from New
York through to Hong Kong than from
San Francisco to Hong Kong, or, in
some cases, less than from New York
to San Francisco. The rates from New
York to San Francisco viii speedily be
determined by factors with which
San Francisco has nothing whatever
to do. The syndicate can do as it
pleases. Already we are told that east
ern merchants are taking advantage
Of the new schedule, and, as a result.
when the Picking was about to sail for
China recently, the San Francisco
70
space, as all had been taken up by
those in the east.
This is a situation that is likely to
increase in intensity. The transcOn-
tinentaI railways defend themseIve on
the ground that if they do not offer
these low rates the business will all 60
from New York and other Atlantic
shipping points by way of the SueZ
canal Thus the transportation prob
lem for the Pacific coast has changed
from a question whether goods are to
be shipped from the east by rail across
the continent, or around the continent
by sea, to one of whether they are to
be shipped from San Francisco at all
There will eventually be no terminal
points. How can there be terminal
points in a circle? Goods viii be
hipPed one way or another as the
interest or within of the syndicate may
dicf ate, for it Is certain as day that the
syndicate that is gathering in the rail-
roads will gather in the ships as well.
The railway syndicate controls the
roads to every port in the United
States, and in due course of time, un-
less something extraordinary happens
to prevent it, it will control the ship
ping lines from every port to other
parts of the world
The nations commerce by land and
lea is at the mercy of the syndicate, or
soon will be. The government itself !
moves but as the syndicate permits. !
Great cities are likely to be turned |
into way stations by the syndicate. |
Let there be a quarrel between the |
syndicate and the city council of Chi |
cagO or st. Louis, and those cities |
could be side tracked by the orders Of
the syndicate, by re-arranging rates to |
defect business from them. What has |
happened to San Francisco may hap |
pen to any other city. Protests will be
The syndicate will be able, if it /
should so desire, to paraIyze the trade
of any city in the country in the space
Of months time, and even to reduce
it to the verge of starvation by putting
rates against it and lowering those in
favor of other points. With this power
it viii make whole communities vassals
to it. The syndicate can control all
the shipping, and then it can make
money by making rates that viii COM
pensate it for any loss through reduc-
ton of the tariff. The syndicate is the
greatest thing In this country to-day,
and the danger Of it is so plain that
he mere statement of its proceedings
u an article like present, is more eff
5ective in creating opinion against the
lggrandizement of the plutocrats than
Ill The vapOrings Of the demagogues. I
The socialists and anarchists of the
Immediate future viii not be the farm
It or the Iaborer or the student, but
he solid and soIid-minded business
nan and merchant.-The st. Louis
Mirror.