Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-12-18
roads. BY pEn,.e.wr1cn.

| Responding to the invitation of
The Item that its readers would con-
slider this question and let The Item
have their views the writer has to
say that fifteen years ago in the ear
lier days of railroad combination he
expressed the opinion that the pro-
te-s would go on until the whole
system in the United States would
be practically controlled by an asso-
citation of strong men of very limited
numbers. 1t was pointed out that
many of the State constitutions for
bid the control of competing lines
being acquired by any competitor,
and to this the response was made
that it would be perfectly easy to
organize Trust Company that
should own controlling interest in
as many lines as desired. In fact
there seemed to be no reason why
one such company should not have
centralized in its Office, either direct
ly or indirectly, the ultimate control
Of the whole system.
The Northern Securities Company
is one step in that direction. A
Southern Securities Company is a
logical sequence. Then a Northeast
ern, a Central and so on ad H6itlAn.
Naturally there follows a view of
United States Trust Corporation q la
United States Steel Corporation, and
there you are.
If the ownership or control were
all it would be a comparatively
simple matter as the only thing nee
essary would be for the national gov
ernment to buy out that last Trust
Company that had absorbed all the
others. Perhaps something of the
nature of confiscation might be in
order if that ultimate Trust is only
owned by few plutocrats as it is
the fashion to designate them. The
debating school of The Item could
make short work of such an Organi-
zation, but If the men who direct are
wise enough to spread the ownership
of it's stock all oyer the country and
among all classes, there will come
the rub. The engineers of the con-
solidated schemes are generally wise,
albeit sometimes they do foolish
things as they did in the imitation of
the coal strike. Suppose the miners
had kept it up for few weeks longer
where would the country have been?
| Who is there that believes they could
not Just as we'll have kept it up most
of the winter with the assistance
they were getting from all over the
world and with their experience in
living on the most meagre fare?
When the magnates want to con-
troll anything they simply take
measures to discredit it in any pos
sible way without regard to the
thousands or the hundreds of thous-
ands that suffer. When they start
at this course they also start the
machinery in Wall Street to buy it
up while the whole country is alarm
ed. Sometimes they play this trick
on each other, witness the late ex-
periences with Northern Pacific and
the Louisville & Nashville railroads.
The change in both was made in
almost one day but it is to be re.
membered that with the property
the purchaser took over also a capa
BILE management, able to operate
either property, and while new Sc,
of owners took possession one morn
ing neither you or l travelling or
either road or doing freight busines:
could have told from anything We
saw or did that any such change hat
taken place. With all of it however
it seems that every such question
whether it be railroads, steel manu-
: factories, meat packing establish
ments, steamship lines or anything
/ else, they find their way to the sam'
office in Wall Street for the fina
adjustment.
How would it do for the govern
men to absorb that Wall Street con
cern into its cabinet and set it t
work?
Continued in next issue.
/. Notice To the Taxpayers of La