Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-04-30
soUTH oARolIrA. APRIL 80. 1902.
REV. SAM JONES ON TRUSTS.
They WIN Finally Torols and Fall by their Own
unwlelGlness.

Many honest people fear the infu-
ence of capital, and deprecate its ag-
gregation. The Rev. Sam Jones
says on this subject: !
"The large trusts aud combina.
tions already formed, and being
formed, by aggregations of capital
are considered hurtful to the masses
and the common people. This is "a
theory. Theoretically thing may
be so, and practically it may be very
untrue. When we speak of trusts
and combines we think Of the Stan.
dsrd Oil trust, the sugar trust, the
tobacco trust, etc. When the SIAN.
dand Oil trust was formed was
paying forty cents gallon for kero;
sene oil; l am getting it now for
ten cents gallon. / was paying
twelve and one-half cents for sugar
several years ago, but when the COM
bines set in we got it for FIVE and
one-quarter. When the whiskey
trust was organized 1 was in hope
itwould put up the price of whiskey
where the poor devils couldn't get
it, but they seemed to oheapen that
down to where they can pay the
government $1.10 gallon revenue
on it and yet sell it for S1.27@,
which demonstrates that they are
making it and letting the public have
it at about seventeen and one-half
cents gallon.
'"There is no doubt the aggrega-
tion of wealth, with brains control
ing it, can manufacture any article
cheaper than it is or has been manu-.
featured on small scale. The great
railroad combinations, many think,
will eat US up blood rare. Occasion
ally l get on little jerk water road
that is not in the combination, and
want to double my accident policies
and be satisfied with a 15-mile-an-
hour gait and console myself that
can ride all day for dollar, but
when | get on the Pennsylvania or
Vanderbilt system of roads, with
their schedules forty miles an hour,
vestibule trains, with parlor cars,
sleeping cars, dining cars, have a
hotel on wheels carrying me toward
my destination, and all this for about
two cents mile. Give me the road
that is in the combine to carry me
where am going.
"Public sentiment is the safeguard
which is thrown around all aggrega-
tions of wealth and all combinations
of interest. The Standard Oil, the
railroad combinations, the sugar
trust, are as sensitive to public senti-
ment as the snow banks to the rays
of the sun. Trusts and combines
will not hurt the public, but stock
holders and bondholders may suffer
later on, when these great bulky in
stitutions become unwieldy and fall
with their own weight. Fifty thou
sand men in the United States, per-
haps not more, control the great
trusts of the country. These fifty
thousand men know that there are
10000 900 of other people in Amer
lea, and their wisdom teaches them
where boundary lines are, over which
they cannot go without peril of
themselves and disaster TO the pub
lie. No combination now says
"damn the public" but they have
their weathercocks out on every
prominent cupola watching how the
wind blows.
"Of course, political capital can
be made out of such forma-
tions of wealth, and social orders
may raise the black flag to fight
them; but I am a thousand times
more afraid Of demagogues and poll
tioians than I am afraid of trusts and
combines. Good government -
which means not only the well-being
of the citizens, but the overthrow of
all that will hurt the citizen-de-
pends upon good men in Office, and
instead of shouting against trusts
and combinations one should give
more attention to those whom we
elect to office in the municipal, State
and national governments, 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 lie the
blood and bones of the victims over
whom they have run to success
Nevertheless, the big four have fur
nished the public with better and
cheaper meat. The successful man
or combination means the downfall
of other men and combinations
One preacher, preaching to five thou.
| -. A