The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1902-02-11

beneticence or whether we shall still be
free men as we fondly imagined we were
in this land of the brave and home of
the free.
How can we expect any political party
to control a power greater than them
selves. Laws already exist but they de-
fy them, therefore does it not seem that
we must look for the cause of this power
and if we can ascertain it, to remove the
cause will solve the difficulty. The law
of the land admits of private property
in everything but men, and we will
probably all agree that man has the
right to do what he likes with what is
his own. Now the railroads are private
property, created so by law, and there
fore we see how difficult it is to dictate
to those who own this property how
they shall use it. We must not lose sight
of the fact that this species OF property
is only useful to those owning it as long
as they can exact profit out of those
who use it, and as long as there were
various railroads competing with each
other for business, this necessarily af-
fected the amount of profit each made.
Now railroad has become an absolute
necessity in modern civilization and we
must use them in order to live, cOnse-
quently realizing this condition of af
fairs, it means more profit for the own
ers of this kind OF property if they do
away with competition among them
selves and by combining increase their
profits. Now profit represents the diff
ference between the absolute cost of any
thing and what is paid for it, and that
explains why those who own the rail-
roads are able to live in idleness and
luxury, because they can dictate to
| ali of us upon what terms we may use
the railroad, which as we have seen is
an absolute necessity. If all that is
paid for the service rendered would go
to those who perform the service, per-
haps one might say there would be no
injustice done anyone, but we know
nothing get the most simply by virtue
OF ownership. In We days OF long ago
we were not dependent upon railroads,
/ therefore the times have changed and
We ought to ask ourselves whether it is
/ sensible to place such power in the
hands OF comparatively few of the COM
munity by allowing them to own that
upon which all men depend. The secret
OF all our troubles lies in the fact that,
IN everything that goes to supply US
with the necessities OF life individualism
is a thing OF the past We see on every
hand that cooperation has taken its
| place. We have thereby gained greater
! power in production, but along with this
increased production we are confronted
with the fact that we have become more
and more dependent upon each other
and that all the machinery of produc-
ton is becoming the property OF fewer
and fewer men, thereby compelling the
rest of us to accede to their terms which
we are obliged Ia accept in order to live.
This is the secret Of the power of mo-
nopoly. We have placed it outside OF
ourselves and instead OF all the forces
contained in modern civilization being
made to do service for mankind, they
are owned and controlled by few who,
relying upon the necessities OF their
fellowmen can read where others sowed.
This explains why the farmer, however
great the harvest, can never get the
benefit of it. because those who would